Pune Porsche Crash Case: New evidence outlines how doctors tried to ‘save’ teenage driver

New details emerged this week as the Pune police filed a ‘supplementary final report’ in the Porsche crash case. Officials claim that the teenage accused — as well as several members of his family — had been drunk at the time of the accident. Doctors at the government-run Sassoon Hospital had subsequently been bribed to lie about the alcohol levels in order to ‘save the teen’.

According to reports citing the prosecutors, one of the doctors was paid ₹2.5 lakh to switch the samples for the main accused and two other minors in the car. Initial plans to use their mothers' samples were dropped as the blood type did not match the minors.

An NDTV report adds that trainee doctors were ordered to draw blood using dry cotton instead of cotton dipped in alcohol (as is the norm) in order to avoid a possible contamination. Local police officials also failed to follow protocol in the hours after after the accident.

The teenager is accused of driving a Porsche under the influence of alcohol in the wee hours of May 19 when it hit a motorbike in the Kalyani Nagar area. Two young IT professionals had been killed in the accident.

Charges against the juvenile driver now include evidence destruction and corruption alongside the primary accusation of ‘culpable homicide not amounting to murder’.

According to the police, the accused as well as his parents and brother had been drunk at the time of the crash. Eyewitnesses at the crash site further claimed that the boy had been so intoxicated that he could barely stand. A preliminary medical report however claimed soon afterwards that the juvenile had a ‘negative’ reading for blood alcohol.

The police have now invoked the Prevention of Corruption Act against the 17-year-old and accuses him of colluding with his parents, doctors from the government-run Sassoon Hospital and some middlemen to swap the samples. Blood was taken allegedly from ultimately from his mother to hide the fact that the juvenile was drunk.

(With inputs from agencies)