Pune crash: Drunk teen’s blood sample swapped with that of his mother, say sources
PUNE, MAY 30 : Shivani Agarwal, the mother of the 17-year-old boy involved in a Porsche car crash in Pune, had given her blood sample that was swapped with that of her son’s at the city’s Sassoon General Hospital, police sources said.
The blood sample was taken by Dr Shrihari Halnor, accused of manipulating the blood sample of the teen driver, and his staff, they added.
Agarwal was present at the hospital when the test happened and is absconding after the arrest of Dr Halnor and Dr Ajay Tawade, who is accused of switching the teen’s blood sample, police sources said, adding that the police are trying to trace her.
The teenager, who is the son of a city-based builder, drank alcohol at a restaurant and club before driving the Porsche car at a high speed and ramming a bike on May 19, killing two IT professionals.
Earlier, the Sassoon General Hospital sacked Dr Halnor, the chief medical officer of the state-run hospital, in the wake of the developments and was arrested on Monday.
According to the police, Dr Halnor, who had taken the blood sample from the juvenile, revealed he had changed the blood sample on the directions of Dr Tawade.
Earlier, the hospital’s dean, Vinayak Kale, claimed that Dr Tawade, accused of swapping the teen’s blood sample, had been appointed as superintendent based on a recommendation from MLA Sunil Tingre and after approval from the state’s medical education minister Hasan Mushrif.
Despite being an accused in kidney transplant and drug cases, Dr Taware was appointed the head of the Forensic Medical Department, Kale said.
Before the minor’s blood samples were collected, the teen driver’s father, Vishal Agarwal, communicated with Dr Taware via WhatsApp, and FaceTime calls, as well as a single general call, police sources said, adding that there were 14 such calls in total. The calls were made between 8.30 am and 10.40 am on May 19 and the blood samples were taken at 11 am.
The Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) report showed no alcohol in the first blood sample, which raised suspicions. Later, a second blood test conducted at a different hospital and DNA tests confirmed the samples were from two different individuals.
This led investigators to suspect that the doctors at the Sassoon General Hospital had tampered with the evidence to protect the accused juvenile.
-The India Today
