Pune car crash: It was Sassoon doctor's idea to swap juvenile's blood samples, police say
The Hindu
Father and doctor arrested for swapping blood samples in Porsche crash case; police probe corruption allegations.
The father of the minor involved in the Porsche crash case and Dr. Ajay Taware of the Sassoon government hospital were constantly in touch after the accident in Kalyani Nagar, and it was the government doctor who first thought that the blood samples could be swapped, police claimed on May 28.
Both the teenager's father, realtor Vishal Agarwal, and Dr. Taware have been arrested in related cases following the accident of May 19 where two IT professionals were killed when the car allegedly driven by the drunk 17-year-old crashed into their motorbike.
Following the accident, more than a dozen calls were exchanged between Dr. Taware and Vishal Agarwal, said a senior police official.
Police have arrested Dr. Taware, head of the state-run hospital's forensic medicine department, chief medical officer Dr. Shrihari Halnor and staff member Atul Ghatkamble for allegedly throwing away the minor's blood samples, taken after the accident, and replacing them with the samples of another person's blood which had no traces of alcohol.
"Our focus is on two things: identifying whose blood samples were used to replace the juvenile's samples and determining the financial gain received or promised to Dr. Taware. It has come to light that Dr. Halnor, the CMO at the casualty section, and the third accused, Ghatkamble, received a total of ₹3 lakh from Dr. Taware to change the blood samples," stated another senior police officer.
It was to be probed whether Dr. Taware gave them ₹3 lakh from his pocket or he had taken the money from someone else, the official said.
To change the blood samples was Dr. Taware's idea, he claimed. "It was unthinkable for everyone else that blood samples could be changed. It was Dr. Taware's idea." "Their (Agarwal and Taware) attitude was that money can buy anything," the official said. Police were going to invoke the Prevention of Corruption Act against the accused doctors, he added.
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