Pune Porsche accident: Teen's father charged with cheating, sent to jail till June 7
Pune/IBNS: The father of the 17-year-old Pune teen, who killed two techies after illegally consuming alcohol and then driving his dad's Rs. 2.5 crore Porsche sports car without a license of any sort, has been sent to jail by a city magistrate court.
He has been charged with cheating under Section 420 of the Indian Penal Code.
The father will be in jail for 14 days - till June 7. The police had sought custody for seven days.
With this magistrate court's ruling, he can now apply for bail, which he is expected to do before a higher court.
The father's jail term ends two days after the conclusion of the remand period of his son.
The boy was initially granted bail within 15 hours of the accident on Sunday early morning on terms like a 300-word essay on road safety, which triggered massive anger.
Later, the Juvenile Justice Board Thursday changed its order and sent him to a remand home till June 5.
The cops informed the court that they needed to question the father, a prominent builder, about visitor logs from his home and, crucially, on the potential destruction of evidence as it appears CCTV footage from the boy's house has been tampered with.
In addition, the father's original mobile phone - left at home to avoid being tracked when he went on the run after the incident - is now with the police and will be examined by an expert. The cops said they needed continued access to the father so they could confront him with the contents of the phone.
And, finally, the cops said they needed custody of the father to ask him about the Rs. 48,000 his son and the boy's friends reportedly spent at the Cosie Bar in the hours before the incident.
A prominent city builder, Vishal Agarwal has been charged with willful neglect of his son under Section 75 of the Juvenile Justice, which carries a maximum jail term of three years and a fine of Rs. 1 lakh.
In today's hearing, the father - arrested 24 hours after the horrific incident, while trying to escape from the cops - was also charged with cheating under Section 420 of the Indian Penal Code.
Under this law, the father faces a maximum jail term of seven years and a fine. He may also be booked with destruction of evidence, police sources said.
The charge relates to an unpaid amount of Rs. 1,758 as registration for the Porsche his son was driving when he rammed into the two-wheeler carrying Aneesh Awadhiya and Ashwini Koshta, who died on spot.
Meanwhile, the teen faces a drunk driving charge that, for a first-time offender, allows a six-month jail term and a fine of Rs. 10,000. He could face the much sterner charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder if the Juvenile Board allows the legal system to try him as an adult.
At 17 years and 8 months, the boy was four months short of the legal age for driving and eight years shy of Maharashtra's legal drinking age, which is 25.