Father of minor boy involved in Pune car crash arrested; to be produced in court on Wednesday

PTI

Pune, May 21

The father of a 17-year-old boy, whose speeding luxury car killed two software engineers in Pune, was placed under arrest on Tuesday evening, hours after he was detained from central Maharashtra's Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar town, police said.

The car, a Porsche, allegedly driven by the boy who, the police claim, was drunk at the time of the accident, fatally knocked down two motorbike-borne software engineers in the Kalyani Nagar area of Pune city in the early hours of Sunday, according to police.

The teenager's father, a well-known real estate developer, was detained in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, around 250km from Pune, by sleuths of the crime branch, which is probing the accident case, and brought to the city in the evening, they said.

"We have arrested him and he will be produced before a court on Wednesday," said Police Commissioner Amitesh Kumar.

Kumar said Jayesh Bonkar, one of the staffers at Hotel Blak Club, where the boy was served liquor, was also arrested.

Earlier, the police arrested three other accused - an owner and two managers of different restaurants - in connection with the case. The trio - Naman Pralhad Bhutda, the owner of Cosie restaurant, its manager Sachin Katkar, and the manager of Blak Club hotel Sandip Sangle - were produced before a court which remanded them in police custody till May 24.

While seeking their custody for seven days, the prosecution told the court that the establishments owned or managed by the accused served liquor to the boy and his friends without confirming his age.

The deceased were identified as Anish Awadhiya and Ashwini Koshta, both 24-year-old IT professionals hailing from Madhya Pradesh and working in Pune.

After the accident, the police had registered a case against the teenager's father under Sections 75 and 77 of the Juvenile Justice Act and relevant provisions of the IPC.

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 lodged in connection with the crash, the man, despite knowing his son did not have a valid driving licence, gave him the car, thus endangering the latter's life. He also allowed his son to party despite knowing that he consumes liquor. 

#Maharashtra