Pune Porsche accident: Teen's mother requested driver to take blame for crash

The Pune Police has claimed that the family of the 17-year-old, who killed two young IT professionals after his Porsche Taycan hit a bike in Kalyani Nagar, put severe pressure on the driver, Gangadhar, to take the blame for the May 19 accident.

The minor's father Vishal Agarwal and grandfather Surendra Agarwal, both in custody, allegedly pressured Gangadhar into taking the blame for the crash by offering him money and gifts and threatening him.

Pune's Commissioner of Police Amitesh Kumar told The Times of India that the minor's father, a renowned builder in the city, and mother pressured Gangadhar.

“We have recorded the statement of the driver. He mentioned that around 2.45am on Sunday (after the accident), the builder (father of the boy) called him up. The builder told him to claim that he was behind the wheel of the car when the accident had occurred. The builder’s wife, too emotionally, requested him to own up responsibility of the accident. The family members gave him different enticements for owning up responsibility,” ToI quoted the top cop as saying.

On Saturday, following a complaint from the Gangadhar, the Pune Police charged Vishal and Surendra with IPC sections 365 and 368 for kidnapping, threatening and confining the driver to the family's Wadgaonsheri residence on the night of the incident to force him to own up to the crime.

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Producing him in court on Saturday, the Pune Police said Gangadhar's clothes were recovered from the Agarwal house. They also sought custody of the BMW, in which the driver was allegedly kidnapped.

The teen's grandfather was sent to police custody until May 28. His lawyer said Surendra was in Delhi on the night of the incident with his wife. He was a well-known builder in the city before his family split up.

In the court, the police mentioned the grandfather's alleged criminal past to ask for his custody and to protect Gangadhar. Surendra has been involved in cases of cheating, two attempted murders, and making criminal threats, according to the police.

Vishal, arrested on Tuesday and currently in jail for another case related to the accident, was also mentioned in the First Information Report (FIR).

The minor is currently in a government observatory home in Yerawada after a Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) cancelled his bail plea on Wednesday.

What happened on May 19?

On May 19, a Porsche, allegedly driven by the teenager who police say was intoxicated, crashed into two software engineers riding a motorbike in the Kalyani Nagar area. The collision resulted in the deaths of Anish Awadhiya and Ashwini Koshta, both 24 years.

Kumar told ToI, “After the accident, the minor, his friends and the driver were taken to the police station. Initially, the driver went on claiming that he was behind the wheel. The police did not believe in him and registered the case against the minor.”

As per the police, after his statement was recorded on May 19, Vishal and his family followed the driver when he went home. “They forced him to sit in their car and drove him to their bungalow in Wadgaonsheri. The driver was forced to sit in a room and they confiscated his phone. No one was allowed to meet him. The next day, the driver’s wife went to the builder’s bungalow searching for her husband. But she was not allowed to meet him. The builder’s family members made many ‘promises’ to her and requested her to cajole her husband to own up the responsibility of the accident after she created a scene there,” the commissioner told ToI.

He added, “Later in the day, the driver was allowed to return home with a warning. Following this, he was ‘underground’ for two days and resurfaced on Thursday. When we took him to the crime branch for questioning on Thursday, things unfolded on this aspect of the case. Considering the criminal background of the boy’s grandfather, we have given round-the-clock protection to the driver under the Witness Protection Act. The crime branch has been ordered to probe all three cases — the accident, the case against the minor’s father and pubs, and this fresh case of abduction and confinement.”