Pune Porsche case: Is it not confinement if juvenile is kept in custody after bail, asks HC

Bombay High Court questions confinement of juvenile in Porsche case, raises concerns over bail amendment and observation home stay.

The Bombay High Court on June 21 queried if it amounted to confinement when the juvenile accused in the Pune Porsche case was granted bail but was taken back in custody and kept in an observation home.

A division bench of Justices Bharati Dangre and Manjusha Deshpande said there was no denying that the accident was unfortunate.

“Two people have lost their lives. There was trauma but the child (juvenile) was also in trauma,” the court said.

The bench also questioned the police under what provision of law, the order granting bail to the minor accused in the Porsche accident case was amended and how he has been kept in “confinement”.

In the early hours of May 19, the juvenile was allegedly driving a Porsche car at very high speed in an intoxicated state when the vehicle crashed into a bike, killing two software engineers – Aneesh Awadhiya and Ashwini Koshta – in Pune’s Kalyani Nagar.

The 17-year-old was granted bail the same day by the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB), which ordered that he be kept under the care and supervision of his parents and grandfather. He was also asked to write a 300-word essay on road safety.

Amid a nationwide uproar over the quick bail, the police appealed to the JJB to amend the bail order. On May 22, the board ordered the boy to be taken into custody and remanded him to an observation home.