The Supreme Court on Tuesday granted bail to Vishal Agarwal, father of the minor accused in the Pune Porsche crash case, which claimed the lives of two young software engineers.
Agarwal is alleged to have been part of a conspiracy to tamper with evidence following the accident, particularly the swapping of the minor’s blood sample to suppress evidence of alcohol consumption. A Bench of Justice BV Nagarathna and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan noted that several co-accused in connected matters had already been granted bail and that Agarwal had spent 22 months in jail.
“Under these circumstances, the appellant has made out a case for grant of bail,” the court observed. The Bench directed that Agarwal be released on bail, subject to conditions. “The appellant shall cooperate with the investigation and the trial, and shall not misuse his liberty in any manner. The petitioner shall not make any attempt to contact the witnesses, either directly or indirectly. Any infraction of these conditions shall entail cancellation of the bail granted to the appellant. Having regard to the facts and circumstances of the case, we direct the concerned trial court to conclude the trial at the earliest,” the court ordered.
During the hearing, Justice Nagarathna also reflected on what she described as the mind-set prevailing in society in such cases. “Whatever you are saying is a reflection of the mind-set of Indian society. This is how everything happens; otherwise why would we have so many such matters? Everyone wants to get the better of the law instead of facing the law. All of this happens because of the prevailing mind-set in society,” Justice Nagarthna remarked.
At the same time, the Bench emphasised that such concerns cannot justify curtailing personal liberty before conviction. The court made this comment after senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, appearing for the father of one of the victims, said a message should be sent so that people learn to respect the law. To this, Justice Nagarathna said, “Not at the cost of a person losing his liberty.”
The top court was dealing with a plea filed by Agarwal challenging the Bombay High Court’s order, which had denied him bail. The FIR was registered following a fatal accident that took place in the early hours of May 19, 2024, when a Porsche car allegedly driven by a juvenile in an inebriated state rammed into a motorcycle in Pune’s Kalyani Nagar area.
The crash led to the death of software engineers Aneesh Awadhiya and Ashwini Koshta, both residents of Madhya Pradesh. According to the prosecution, the father of the accused juvenile - businessman Vishal Agarwal - along with his wife and other associates, conspired with doctors to manipulate the blood reports of the juvenile and his friends, ensuring they showed no traces of alcohol.
In the chargesheet, Agarwal was booked under several provisions of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), including sections 120B (criminal conspiracy), 201 (causing disappearance of evidence), 213 and 214 (offences relating to screening an offender), and Sections 466, 467, 468 and 471 (forgery and use of forged documents), among others. His bail plea was earlier rejected by the sessions court and later by the Bombay High Court.
He then moved the Supreme Court. Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for Agarwal, argued that the present case concerned the father’s bail plea and that several other accused persons had already been granted bail. “This is the father’s bail plea. Everyone else has already been granted bail. The child was driving, but I had provided a driver. Beyond that what can the father do?” Rohatgi submitted.
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