The Juvenile Justice Board on Tuesday rejected a plea by Pune police seeking permission to try a 17-year-old boy, accused of driving a Porsche while drunk and killing two people last year, as an adult in the case.
The incident, which sparked national outrage, took place on 19 May last year in Pune’s Kalyani Nagar area when the teenager’s speeding car hit a motorcycle, killing IT professionals Anish Awadhiya and his friend Ashwini Costa.
Police argued the accused committed a “heinous” offence as not only were two people killed but there were also alleged attempts to tamper with crucial evidence.
Defence counsel Prashant Patil said the Board turned down the prosecution’s plea, which he had opposed by citing previous Supreme Court rulings.
“We cited the Supreme Court’s judgement in Shilpa Mittal vs State, which defines what constitutes a heinous crime. The guidelines laid down by the apex court bind everyone. In this case, no section invoked carries a minimum punishment of seven years, which is mandatory for an offence to be defined as heinous,” Patil told the news agency.
He added that the Board had already carried out its preliminary assessment to decide whether the ‘child in conflict with law’ should be tried as an adult, and it had not found sufficient grounds to do so.
The teenager was initially granted bail within hours of the fatal crash, with conditions including writing a 300-word essay on road safety. The lenient terms drew widespread criticism and he was subsequently sent to an observation home three days later.
However, on 25 June this year, the Bombay High Court ordered his immediate release, ruling that the Board’s decision to remand him to an observation home was illegal and emphasising that juvenile law must be implemented in full.
Meanwhile, arguments continue before a Pune sessions court on framing charges against 10 other accused in the case, including the teenager’s father and mother.
The other accused include Sassoon Hospital doctors Ajay Taware and Shrihari Halnor, hospital staffer Atul Ghatkamble, middlemen Bashpak Makandar and Amar Gaikwad, as well as Aditya Avinash Sood, Ashish Mittal, and Arun Kumar Singh.
While the juvenile’s mother is out on bail, the remaining nine accused remain in jail.
Earlier this month, the prosecution told the court that there had been an attempt to swap blood samples at a second hospital to protect the teenager, but the effort failed.
According to additional documents submitted under Section 173(8) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the police initially collected the teenager’s blood sample at Sassoon Hospital but, suspecting possible tampering, they arranged for another sample at Aundh Government Hospital.
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