Pune, May 21 (IANS): Under fire from the Opposition, Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde has ordered the Pune Police to probe the Porsche crash driven by a drunken teen which left two killed, even as police arrested three more persons, here on Tuesday.
Simultaneously, the Maha Vikas Aghadi’s Congress Leader of Opposition (Assembly) Vijay Wadettiwar demanded a judicial probe into the incident and Shiv Sena (UBT)’s Sanjay Raut alleged that the police were acting under certain pressures, a fake medical report was given and demanded sacking of Commissioner of Police (CP) Amitesh Kumar.
Moving swiftly, the Pune Police arrested a prominent city realtor Vishal Agarwal -- the father of the 17-year-old boy who killed two IT techies with his speeding Porsche -- from Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar (Aurangabad) early on Tuesday.
On his part, CP Amitesh Kumar dared the opposition and others to prove their charges that the police acted under pressure or went soft on the accused minor whose father is a reputed realty developer in the city.
Besides, the police nabbed the owner of Cosie Bar and Restaurant Prahlad Bhutada, manager Sachin Katkar and bartender Sandeep Sangle for allegedly serving alcohol illegally to a minor customer and his friends, Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime) Shailesh Balkawade told media-persons.
CP Kumar also challenged the Opposition and critics to prove that the Pune Police did not invoke the most stringent charges permissible under the laws against the minor accused.
He said that two applications filed in the court were rejected -- one to treat the juvenile driver as an adult, and another for his remand, but the police will appeal in a higher court.
“This is a very serious offence and attracts a jail term of at least seven years. We said that since the accused is over 16 years old, he should be treated as an ‘adult’, and secondly to remand him to a juvenile home for 14 days till the police plea was decided, but both the appeals were rejected,” said Kumar.
Agarwal was absconding for the past two days after his son knocked down two IT professionals from Madhya Pradesh, early on Sunday morning, in an alleged case of underage, drunken driving in an unregistered vehicle, sparking a furore in Pune.
Tracked and caught by a Pune Crime Branch team in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, he will be brought to Pune later in the day (May 21) and produced before a court, officials said.
Soon after the gruesome accident around 2.15 a.m. on Sunday (May 19), the Pune Police had booked Agarwal for handing over the car without a registration to his son who did not have a driving licence, and it was plying on Pune roads for around two months.
The police had also booked the owners/managers Bhutada, Katkar, Sangle and Jayesh Bonkar -- of the prime hotel in Mundhwa, for allegedly serving liquor to a group of minors and keeping the establishment open beyond the permissible hours.
The two deceased were later identified as Ashwini Koshta and Aneesh Awadhiya, both 24, hailing from Madhya Pradesh, and were returning on a motorcycle after attending a friend’s get-together.
As the boy’s gleaming silver-grey Porsche crashed into the motorcycle, Koshta was flung at least 20 feet high and fell on the road, while Awadhiya fell on a parked car.
Both succumbed instantaneously in the sudden mishap, even as the incident sparked a massive furore on social media networks with people demanding exemplary stringent punishment for the boy and others.
The boy was produced on Sunday before the Juvenile Justice Board which granted bail to the accused as he was 17 years and 8 months old, rejecting the police plea to treat him as an adult in view of the heinous crime.
The verdict created more outrage as the JJB asked the boy to write a 300-word essay on the accident, work two weeks with the Yerawada Traffic Police authorities and take medical treatment/counselling to quit drinking.