Minors and Tragedy: Kalyani Nagar Car Crash Controversy Unfolds

A Pune court remanded Vishal Agarwal, father of a minor involved in a fatal car crash, along with five others, in judicial custody. The minor allegedly consumed alcohol before the accident. Agarwal faces charges under the Juvenile Justice Act, while others are booked for serving alcohol to the underage individual.

A court here on Friday remanded Vishal Agarwal, father of a 17-year-old allegedly involved in a car crash that killed two persons in Kalyani Nagar area of the city, and five other accused in the case in judicial custody till June 7.

The prosecution had demanded extension of their police custody for further probe.

But the court remanded Agarwal and others including the owner and employees of two liquor-serving establishments -- where the teenager had allegedly consumed alcohol before his Porsche car knocked down two software professionals on a motorbike -- in judicial custody instead.

Attempts were made to make it appear that the minor was not at the wheel and some adult person was driving the car at the time of the accident in the early hours of May 19, Pune Police Commissioner Amitesh Kumar had said earlier in the day.

Agarwal and the other five accused were produced before additional sessions judge S P Ponkshe after their police custody came to an end.

The other accused are Naman Bhutada, owner of Cosie Restaurant, its manager Sachin Katkar; manager of Black Club Sandip Sangale and its employees Jayesh Gavkar and Nitesh Shevani.

Agarwal, a real estate developer, was arrested under sections 75 and 77 of the Juvenile Justice Act, while the others were booked for allegedly serving alcohol to an underage person.

Section 75 deals with ''willful neglect of a child, or exposing a child to mental or physical illnesses,'' while section 77 deals with supplying a child with intoxicating liquor or drugs.

According to the FIR , despite knowing that his son did not have a valid driving license, Agarwal (50) gave him the car, thus endangering the teenager's life, and allowed him to party even when Agarwal knew that he consumed liquor.

During the hearing on Friday, the prosecution while seeking extension of the police custody told the court that the juvenile had paid a bill of Rs 47,000 at Cosie Restaurant that night, and the police wanted to find out details of the bank account from which the payment was made.

Section 420 (cheating) of the IPC has been added to the charges against Agarwal over non-payment of RTO fees towards the Porsche's registration, the prosecutor said.

Police also wanted to bring the driver of the car, who was allegedly on the passenger seat when the accident took place, face to face with Agarwal for the purpose of probe, the court was told.

Police had seized a register from the entry gate of the juvenile's house which showed that he had taken out the high-end car on Saturday evening. They had also recovered footage of CCTV cameras from the house and it was to be sent for forensic examination, the prosecution said.

The prosecution also told the court that police had seized CCTV recording from the juvenie's house, and investigation indicated that there was tampering with CCTV footage. ''As tampering has been done, further investigation with analysis by a cyber expert is necessary,'' the prosecutor said. Opposing further police custody, defence lawyer advocate Prashant Patil objected to the addition of section 420 of IPC (cheating) in he case.

''The prosecution has argued that my client cheated the state government by not paying the RTO fees of Rs 1,758 towards the registration of the car. This was not needed as it would open a Pandora's box and everything under the sky would be under 420,'' he argued. Police had already seized CCTV footage and other pieces of evidence and there was no need for Agarwal to remain in police custody, Patil added.

Advocate S K Jain, who appeared under other accused, made the same argument. After hearing the arguments, the judge sent all six accused in judicial custody till June 7.

The accused are expected to file bail applications on Monday, the lawyers said.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)