Porsche crash case: Blood samples of others in car also collected, say cops

The blood samples of other three passengers in the Porsche allegedly driven by the 17-year-old were also collected after the fatal accident that claimed two lives, a police official familiar with the probe said here on Thursday.

Further, the juvenile's parents were also present at the Sassoon General Hospital, he said.

Earlier in the day, police told a court here that the juvenile's blood sample was replaced with that of a woman, and they were trying to find out this woman's identity.

Sources in the Maharashtra public health department claimed that she was none other than his mother.

When the samples were being taken on May 19 at the state-run hospital, the juvenile's father and mother were present as it is mandatory, the crime branch official said.

"After the accident, the (Yerawada) police station had sent the juvenile, his two friends who were with him in the car and (family) driver to Sassoon General Hospital for giving blood samples.

Of these samples, the juvenile's blood sample was swapped. Their (other three samples') results also came nil (no traces of alcohol were found)," he said.

"We are probing how their results also came negative," the official added. The ward where the blood samples are collected has a CCTV camera.

"So, just for taking the sample under CCTV, the sample of the juvenile was taken there, but the blood sample of the woman was taken at a place where there was no CCTV," he said.

Police have arrested Dr Ajay Taware, then head of the department of forensic medicine at Sassoon hospital, medical officer Dr Shrihari Halnor and employee Atul Ghatkamble for allegedly manipulating the blood samples to show that the juvenile was not drunk when the Porsche driven by him crashed into a motorbike, killing two IT professionals.

Meanwhile, state Director General of Police Rashmi Shukla held a two-hour long meeting with top police officials in Pune during the day. Among the issues discussed were the car crash case and preparedness for Lok Sabha vote counting on June 4, an official said.