Anish Awadhia : “Pune Car Crash: Builder’s Teen Son Drove Porsche, Cops Testify”

PUNE: A shocking revelation came to light in the special court on Wednesday as the police disclosed that the father of the 17-year-old involved in the fatal car crash in Kalyaninagar had instructed his driver to hand over the luxurious Porsche Taycan to his son for driving. The driver had initially claimed that the car was meant only for him, not for the teenager, but later admitted that the father had given permission for his son to drive the vehicle.

Inspector Ganesh Mane from the crime branch (unit IV) shared this information with special judge S P Ponkshe during the court proceedings. The driver had informed the father over the phone about the teenager’s insistence on driving the car, following which the father instructed the driver to allow the teen to drive while he sat in the adjacent seat.

The prominent builder, identified as the father, was formally arrested on Tuesday evening for allowing his underage son to drive the Porsche Taycan without a valid license or proper training. The builder was apprehended from a lodge in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar by a crime branch team and brought to Pune for further interrogation.

In a related development, two employees of the Blak Marriott pub in Mundhwa, Jayesh Satish Gavkar (23) and Nitesh Dhanesh Shevani (34), were also arrested for allegedly serving alcohol to minors, including the teenager involved in the fatal crash. The builder, along with the two pub staffers, were produced before the special court where the police requested seven days of custody for the accused. The court granted the police custody until May 24.

Pune Commissioner of Police, Amitesh Kumar, stated, “The builder and others will be held at Faraskhana police station’s lockup, where they will not receive any VIP treatment. They will be treated like any other arrested individuals and provided regular meals.”

Earlier, Naman Bhutada (25) and Sachin Kaatkar (35) from the Cosie pub in Mundhwa, along with Sandip Sangle (35) from Blak Marriott, were also remanded in police custody until May 24. The teenager had visited these pubs with his friends before the tragic accident.

Apart from the primary FIR related to the accident, a second FIR has been filed against seven individuals, including the builder and six pub staffers, for various offences under the Motor Vehicles Act and the Juvenile Justice Act. Judge Ponkshe emphasized the need to consider the entire sequence of events rather than focusing solely on individual roles and offences.

Prosecutor Vidya Vibhute highlighted the builder’s negligence in allowing his son to consume alcohol and drive without a license. She pointed out that the builder attempted to mislead the police after the accident by providing false information about his whereabouts. The prosecutor also raised concerns about the car’s registration status and the circumstances under which it was being driven on the city roads.

The court proceedings on Wednesday were marred by a disturbing incident as protestors threw black ink at the police van carrying the teenager’s father and the pub staffers. The protestors, who were later detained and released, expressed outrage over the tragic incident that claimed the lives of two individuals in Kalyaninagar.

The fatal accident occurred in the early hours of Sunday when the 17-year-old, driving the Porsche Taycan, collided with a motorcycle in Kalyaninagar, resulting in the deaths of Anish Awadhia and Ashwini Kosta, both tech professionals from Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh.