In the early hours of May 19 in Pune’s Kalyani Nagar area, when a drunken 17-year-old crushed two bike-borne IT professionals to death with his Porsche car, there was an auto-rickshaw driver too who was saved in the nick of time. The driver’s escape emerged after the first CCTV footage of the deadly accident came to light.
Elaborating the incident, auto driver Ameen told News18, “There were three boys in the car. All of them were visibly drunk. After the accident, they got out of the Porsche, asked people not to create an issue, and promised to pay damages immediately.”
Ameen further said, “The car was at a speed of more than 200 kmph. One of the youngsters in the car had fled. Then he came back, and police took them along. Several police vans had reached on the spot. First van took the first two boys, then another van came and took the boy who had fled.”
When asked if there was a driver in the Porsche, as claimed by the Agarwal family, the auto driver said, “There was no driver present in the car, and no other cars along with them. The boys would have fled had the airbags not come off.”
Meanwhile, the Pune Regional Transport Office (RTO) has cancelled the temporary registration certificate of Porsche car involved in the accident. They have sent their report to Bengaluru Central RTO, where the original temporary registration was done. They will now initiate the process of de-registration.
Latest Updates on Pune Porsche Accident
• The accident case took a new turn on Wednesday after Dr Vinayak Kale, the dean of the Sassoon General Hospital, was sent on a compulsory leave on Wednesday, hours after he revealed that he appointed Dr Ajay Taware as the medical superintendent on the basis of a recommendation by Maharashtra medical education minister Hasan Mushrif and and NCP MLA Sunil Tingre.
• The revelation sparked off a blame game between the dean and the minister. “I do not possess any divine powers so that I would know everything about each person and their deeds in my department,” Mushrif was quoted by news agency PTI. He, however, said the dean should have pointed out to the government about the “reputation of this person” when the recommendation was made.
• Kale, on the other hand, admitted that he had issued an executive order for Taware’s appointment. But said he was just following the minister’s order.
• Meanwhile, sources told News18 that Sunil Tingre is not in touch with the senior leadership of Ajit Pawar-led NCP. Sources added that the party does not know his whereabout as he has not contacted the leadership in the last few days.
• Shivani Agrawal, the mother of the 17-year-old accused, has reportedly gone incommunicado. She came to the forefront after a video was widely circulated on social media with claim that the accused uploaded a rap video on the day he got bail. Shivani had clarified that the featuring her son is “fake”.
• Some local reports claimed that the juvenile’s blood sample, which was supposed to be tested after the accident, was swapped with his mother, Shivani Agrawal. A report in ABP Majha quoted sources as saying that the doctors of Sassoon hospital have mentioned in the report of the inquiry committee that the changed blood sample of the teenager belongs to a woman. However, sources told News18 that there is no confirmation yet that the sample belongs to Shivani Agarwal.
• The Uddhav Thackeray faction of the Shiv Sena has demanded protection for Ajay Taware after the doctor allegedly said that he will start taking names in the Pune Porsche case. Sena (UBT) claimed that lives of both Taware and Dr Shrihari Halnor are in danger as they have “sensitive information”. The doctors will be presented in the court today for remand hearing.
