Mumbai: Pune police Monday arrested three medical staffers of Sassoon General Hospital for alleged manipulation of blood samples and destruction of evidence in connection with the Porsche car crash.
The case involves a 17-year-old boy who 19 May allegedly fatally rammed his car into two IT professionals on a bike. So far, police had sent the boy to a juvenile home and arrested his father, grandfather, and the manager of the bars where the boy had drinks with his friends before the accident.
The latest arrests in the case are Dr Ajay Taware, head of the forensic medicine department at Sassoon General Hospital, Dr Shrihari Halnor, chief medical officer of the state-run hospital, and Atul Ghatkamble, a hospital staffer who works under Taware.
Police said the boy’s blood sample was replaced with the sample of another person without alcohol in his bloodstream, allegedly on the directions of Dr Taware. The boy’s blood sample, said Pune police commissioner Amitesh Kumar at a press conference Monday, was thrown into a dustbin. “The juvenile’s father called the doctor and offered him allurements to replace the blood samples,” he added.
According to Kumar, the DNA in what the Sassoon Hospital showed as the boy’s blood sample did not match his father’s DNA, whereas the DNA in another blood sample taken later from the boy matched, revealing the manipulation of evidence.
“Dr Ajay Taware and Dr Shrihari Halnor have been arrested. The investigation revealed that the blood samples of the juvenile were replaced with some other person’s samples, and this was done on the direction of Dr Taware,” said Kumar.
According to the remand copy, which ThePrint has accessed, “to change the blood samples, bribe was given, and financial transactions took place”. The three accused will remain in police custody till 30 May. The police had asked to keep them in custody for 10 days.
The police have slapped Indian Penal Code sections 201 (destruction of evidence), 120B (criminal conspiracy), 467 (forgery), 213 and 214 (obtaining gifts for destruction of evidence) on the three.
On Monday, a team of representatives from Porsche also reached the Yerwada police station to conduct a technical inspection of the luxury car involved in the crash.
Pune police Friday suspended two police officers, inspector Rahul Jagdale and assistant police inspector Vishwanath Todkari, attached with Yerwada Jail for mishandling and not performing their duties during the initial investigation. The police said the two mishandled the investigation and failed to inform the wireless control room about the incident in time.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
Also read: Bid to ‘blame’ driver, tycoon’s arrest & ‘cover-up’ — what we know about Pune Porsche case so far