A Porsche team arrived in Mumbai to inspect the car involved in the accident, at Yerwada Police Station in Pune on June 1, 2024. | Photo Credit: Emmanual Yogini
Shivani and Vishal Agarwal, parents of a teenager involved in a luxury car crash in Pune, were on June 2 produced before the court and were remanded to police custody till June 5 in the case involving destruction of evidence.
Ms. Agarwal is accused of swapping her blood sample with that of her 17-year-old son at Sassoon General Hospital in Pune. The need for a blood sample was part of a police investigation to ascertain alcohol content in the teenager’s blood. She was arrested on June 1 and both the parents are charged with destroying evidence. Mr. Agarwal is also accused of wrongful confinement of their driver.
So far, four of Agarwal family members have been arrested — the teenager, his grandfather Surendra, and both his parents — Shivani and Vishal.
The police, on June 2, sought their custody on the grounds to ascertain the role of both the parents in allegedly getting the blood sample swapped. Replacing the blood sample amounts to destruction of evidence.
Earlier, head of forensic sciences department Dr. Ajay Taware and casualty medical officer Dr. Shrihari Halnor were arrested for allegedly discarding and replacing teenager’s blood sample for a price.
The teenager’s parents were produced in the court with heavy police presence on June 2 afternoon. The Public Prosecutor argued that their custody is required to find out who the mastermind of the crime, who attempted and managed to destroy the evidence in an attempt to secure a clean chit for the underage driver.
Another point presented was, from where they managed to arrange for ₹3 lakh to handover to the doctors. In the days to come, Agarwal residence is likely to be searched as part of investigating the case.
Despite the defence lawyer’s argument that the police already had got sufficient time to investigate, the Magistrate remanded the duo to police custody till June 5.
