As the latest development in the intensifying case over the recent car accident by a teenage Porsche driver in Pune killing two IT professionals, Pune police chief Amitesh Kumar on Saturday revealed the father and grandfather of the juvenile allegedly offered cash and gifts to their family driver and later threatened him to take the blame for the accident.
A local court in Pune on Friday remanded the six accused arrested in the case, including the teenager's father, in judicial custody. The teenager is in an observation home till June 5.
Pune car crash: Pressure on family driver to admit crime
Police took into custody the grandfather for alleged 'wrongful confinement' of the driver by coercing him to admit that he was driving the car at the time of the accident on May 19.
“After the accident, the driver gave a statement at the police station that he was at the wheel when the accident took place. But it was revealed that a teen was driving the car,” said the police commissioner.
According to Kumar, while the driver was on his was back from the Yerawada police station, where the case was registered, he was whisked in a car to the house of the accused on the premises of their bungalow were his phone was confiscated.
“He was pressured to give the statement to police as per their directions,” he said. The driver was offered gifts and cash and later threatened to take the blame, the official said.
“The driver was frightened. He was summoned and his statement was recorded on Thursday. After corroboration of facts, an offence against the juvenile’s father and grandfather was registered,” he said.
The family driver has given a statement saying he was not driving the car when it met with the accident and that the teen’s kin were using pressure tactics to push him to take responsibility for the crash.
The driver and his family will be provided police protection, said police.
Pune car crash: Teenager's father in judicial custody
The police have registered a case against the teenager’s father Vishal Agarwal and grandfather on a complaint by the family driver.
Agarwal, a real estate developer, and his father have been booked under IPC sections 365 (kidnapping with intent secretly and wrongfully to confine a person) and 368 (wrongfully concealing or keeping in confinement), he said.
Agarwal is already in judicial custody.
