Pune Porsche Case: Supreme Court grants bail to Former Sassoon Hospital Medical Superintendent

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday granted bail to the former medical superintendent of Sassoon General Hospital, who was arrested for allegedly tampering with the blood samples of a 17-year-old boy, accused of crashing a Porsche car into a motorcycle in Pune and killing two persons in 2024. 

The incident dates back to May 19, 2024, when the Porsche car allegedly driven by the 17-year-old under the influence of alcohol fatally knocked down two IT professionals in Pune's Kalyani Nagar area.

A bench of Justices B V Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan granted the relief to Sassoon General Hospital's former medical superintendent, Dr Ajay Taware, on the ground of parity.

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Earlier, on February 2, the court granted bail to three accused in the case, while observing that parents are to be blamed for such incidents involving juveniles, as they do not have control over their children.

The accused -- Amar Santish Gaikwad (an alleged middleman), Aditya Avinash Sood and Ashish Satish Mittal (the parents of two other juveniles in the car) -- had been in custody for 18 months. The bench had granted bail to them.

On January 23, the top court sought a response from the Maharashtra government on a plea filed by Gaikwad, seeking bail in the case.

Earlier on January 7, the top court sought a response from the Maharashtra government on pleas filed by two other accused, seeking bail.

Sood (52) and Mittal (37) were arrested on August 19 last year, as their blood samples were used for tests in connection with the two minors who were in the car along with the 17-year-old main accused at the time of the accident.

The Bombay High Court, on December 16 last year, rejected the bail pleas of eight accused, including Gaikwad, Sood and Mittal, in the case.

The Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) had granted bail to the minor accused on lenient terms, sparking nationwide outrage. The bail conditions included writing a 300-word essay on road safety.

The bail granted to the accused juvenile triggered outrage; the Pune Police approached the JJB to review its decision. The board then modified the order and sent the juvenile to an observation home. The high court had subsequently ordered the release of the juvenile. 

While the juvenile involved in the case was released from an observation home, 10 accused, including his parents, Vishal Agarwal and Shivani Agarwal, doctors Ajay Tawre and Shreehari Halnor, Sassoon Hospital's staffer Atul Ghatkamble, Sood, Mittal and Arun Kumar Singh, were sent to jail in the blood sample-swapping case.

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