Eye-witnesses told cops the ₹ 2.5 crore Porsche was travelling at 200 km per hour when it slammed into a two-wheeler carrying Aneesh Awadhiya and Ashwini Koshta, both 24 years old.
Two friends of the 17-year-old teen at the heart of the Pune Porsche crash have claimed the boy was drunk when he killed two people while driving his father’s ₹ 2.5 crore supercar, police sources told NDTV this morning. Witnesses had told cops the car was travelling at 200 km per hour when it slammed into a bike carrying Aneesh Awadhiya and Ashwini Koshta, both 24.
The force of the impact meant Mr Awadhiya and Ms Koshta – IT professionals from Madhya Pradesh – were flung into parked cars and into the air. She died on the spot while he died in a hospital.
Witnesses had earlier also said the boy seemed to be “heavily drunk” when detained by an angry crowd that formed after the incident. There were reports the boy was assaulted by the crowd.
In the hours and days after the horrific incident – which Mr Awadhiya family has called “murder” – CCTV footage from a city bar showed the boy and his friends draped over a table laden with bottles of alcohol. The bar owner and staff were arrested and questioned for serving liquor to a minor.
The minimum legal drinking age in Maharashtra is 25.
Questions have been asked about the boy’s blood alcohol level, particularly after confirmation of lapses of protocol by the arresting cops, two of whom have been suspended. The lapses included not taking the teen – the son of a prominent city real estate mogul – for an immediate blood test.
Further investigation has revealed two doctors and a ward boy at the state-run Sassoon Hospital – where the teen was finally taken, hours after the accident and he had been given water to drink (which could dilute the alcohol level) – may have manipulated the tests by altering the samples.
The teen’s blood sample may have been swapped for one of three others collected for the purpose, including his mother, sources told NDTV. The boy’s sample was found in a dustbin in the hospital.
Dr Ajay Tawade and Dr Hari Harnor will remain in police custody till Wednesday, as will the ward boy, who allegedly handed over the ₹ 3 lakh the teen’s family paid to the doctors to alter the tests.
Dr Harnor is the hospital’s Chief Medical Officer and Dr Tawade the head of its forensic department. The police believe Dr Tawade and the father spoke 14 times on the phone on the day of the incident, possibly to discuss bribes.
The Pune teen was arrested after the incident but released on bail within 15 hours, triggering widespread outrage, particularly over bail conditions that included writing a 300-word essay. The Juvenile Justice Board later modified its order and sent him to a remand home till Wednesday.