New Delhi, May 28
The Pune Police probing the Porsche accident that killed two IT professionals have found that one of the two doctors of Sassoon General Hospital allegedly received Rs 3 lakhs to swape the forensic reports.
The 17-year-old son of the Pune builder, Vishal Agrawal of Brahma Realty, had killed two IT professional with his speeding Porche in an inebriated state. He was taken to the hospital for medical tests after the fatal accident on May 19.
The Pune crime branch had arrested doctors- Dr Ajay Taware, head of the hospital's Forensic Medicine department, and Dr Shrihari Halnor, the chief medical officer on May 26.
After their arrest, the police have now arrested hospital staffer, identified as Atul Ghatkamble who had allegedly given Rs. 3 lakhs to one of the doctors to swap the reports.
The Pune Crime Branch recovered Rs 2.5 lakh from Halnor and the remaining Rs 50,000 from Ghatkamble, who worked under Taware.
The arrest of the two doctors came after it was discovered that the blood samples of the teen driver were switched with those of another person who had not consumed alcohol. The teen's original blood sample was disposed of in a dustbin.
The police are now probing details of how the staffer procured cash to pay as bribe. The trio are likely to get questioned face to face, police added.
The Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) report showed no alcohol in the first blood sample, which raised suspicions. Later, a second blood test conducted at a different hospital and DNA tests confirmed the samples were from two different individuals. This led investigators to suspect that the doctors at the Sassoon General Hospital had tampered with the evidence to protect the accused juvenile.
Pune CP Amitesh Kumar had then ordered probe to inquire further on the forensic reports after which the details of the swapping came to the fore.
Meanwhile, the Maharashtra government has set up a three-member panel to visit the Sassoon General Hospital in connection to the case.
Meanwhile, a new CCTV footage of the minor driving another luxury car of his father appeared that was widely shared on the Internet where the police found out that he habitually drove his father's cars without license. On the fateful day, he drove a Porche gifted by his father on his birthday which did not have a permanent registration and the teen also didn't have a driving license.
