Pune car accident case: grandfather of minor who ran over two techies arrested

The grandfather of the 17-year-old Pune boy who fatally knocked down two techies was arrested on Saturday.

Pune's police commissioner Amitesh Kumar told ANI news agency that the Crime Branch unit of Pune Police arrested Surendra Agarwal for wrongfully confining the family driver and making him give statements to the police that he was driving the Porsche during the accident.

Kumar said that Agarwal was booked under IPC sections 365 (kidnapping or abducting someone with the intent to secretly and wrongfully confine them) and 368 (wrongful concealment or keeping in confinement of a kidnapped or abducted person).

The teenager's father Vishal Agarwal, who is in judicial custody in connection with the car accident, has also been named in this case, PTI news agency quoted a police officer.

A day earlier, Pune police chief Amitesh Kumar had said that an attempt was made to establish that the high-end car was not driven by the minor.

On a complaint by the family driver of the juvenile, the Yerawada police have registered a separate offence against the teen's grandfather and father, he said.

The two have been booked under IPC sections 365 (kidnapping with intent secretly and wrongfully to confine a person) and 368 (wrongfully concealing or keeping in confinement), he said.

“After the car crash, the teen's grandfather and father allegedly kept the driver's phone with them and put him in confinement in his house on the premises of their bungalow from May 19 to May 20. The driver was freed by his wife, said the official from the crime branch.

He said that Agarwal and his father allegedly threatened the driver and asked him to take the blame by claiming that he was at the wheel when the Porsche crashed into a motorcycle in the early hours of Sunday.

On Friday, Pune Police Commissioner Amitesh Kumar told reporters that an attempt was made to establish that the Porsche was not driven by the 17-year-old, and the driver employed by his family even tried to take responsibility.

After the accident, the driver initially claimed he was driving the car, the commissioner said, adding, “Why and under whose pressure he said that will be disclosed at an appropriate time.” Citing their investigation, Kumar said it had emerged that the juvenile was driving the car and they had already collected all the necessary chronological evidence. “For example, when the juvenile left the house, the entry on the security register shows that he left with the car,” the commissioner had said.

“He was fully in his senses, he had full knowledge that due to his conduct, such an accident, where IPC section 304 is applicable, can happen,” the officer said. Section 304 deals with culpable homicide not amounting to murder.

The Pune police on Friday suspended two cops, including an inspector from Yerwada police station, for delayed reporting and dereliction of duty in the case.

The Porsche, allegedly driven by the teenager, who the police claim was drunk at the time, killed two motorbike-borne software engineers in the Kalyani Nagar area of the city in the early hours of Sunday (May 19).

A local court in Pune on Friday remanded the six accused arrested in the case, including the teenager's father, in judicial custody. The teenager is in an observation home till June 5.

The Madhya Pradesh-based parents of the two IT professionals who were killed in the accident have demanded that the Supreme Court monitor the probe and the trial be held in their state.

Also read | Pune Porsche car crash: probe transferred to crime branch, boy's father in judicial custody