Pune Porsche hit-and-run case: SC grants bail to 3 accused of blood sample tampering

The Supreme Court today granted bail to three persons accused of conspiring in the blood sample tampering of two minor occupants of the Porsche car, other than the alleged minor driver, in the Pune Porsche hit-and-run case.

A Bench of Justices B.V. Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan ordered the release of Ashish Satish Mittal, Aditya Avinash Sood, and Amar Santhosh Gaikwad, after observing that the three accused had been incarcerated for around 20 months.

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All three are booked under different provisions of the IPC and the Prevention of Corruption Act for offences like evidence tampering, forgery, and bribery.

In a fatal crash, a Porsche car mowed down two IT professionals, namely Anis Awadhiya and Ashwini Koshta, in Pune’s Kalyaninagar area in the early hours of 19 May 2024. The car was allegedly being driven by a 17-year-old boy under the influence of alcohol at the time of the accident.

While Ashish Satish Mittal is a friend of the father of one of the minors seated in the back of the car, Aditya Avinash Sood is the father of the other minor occupant.

It is alleged that Amar Santhosh Gaikwad had taken three lakh rupees for replacing the blood samples of the two minors.

After granting bail, the Bench of the apex court observed that parents are responsible for handing over the vehicle to children and providing them with sufficient means to have a gala time. The Bench highlighted that the law has to catch up with the people who celebrate on the basis of substance and then go at top speed, killing innocent people on the road.

Notably, a Pune Sessions Court had denied bail to many accused in an earlier hearing. The court had observed that evidence tampering in the case appeared to be “in the genes/DNA of the modus operandi of commission of the crime” and that granting bail would send a “wrong message to society”.