The Supreme Court of India on Tuesday granted bail to Vishal Agarwal, the father of the minor accused of driving a Porsche car under the influence of alcohol in a 2024 crash in Pune that killed two persons.

The incident occurred on May 19, 2024, when the car, allegedly driven by a 17-year-old boy while intoxicated, fatally hit two IT professionals in the Kalyani Nagar area.

A bench comprising Justices B V Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan granted relief to Agarwal, who is accused of conspiring to swap the minor’s blood samples to ensure the occupants of the vehicle received a “Nil Alcohol” report.

The Court noted that the other co-accused in the case have already been granted relief and that Agarwal had been in custody for the past 22 months.

The bench observed, “We note that the appellant has been in custody for the last 22 months. The appellant has made out a case for bail.” It accordingly granted bail, directing that the relief would be subject to the terms and conditions to be imposed by the trial court.

The Maharashtra government opposed the grant of bail, contending that the principle of parity with other co-accused would not apply in the case of Agarwal.

However, the Supreme Court of India directed Agarwal not to contact any witnesses involved in the case and asked the trial court to conclude the proceedings expeditiously.

"The petitioner shall not make any attempt to contact the witnesses either directly or indirectly. Any violation of the conditions shall entitle the state to seek cancellation of the bail. We also direct the concerned trial court to conclude the trial at the earliest," the bench ordered.

Case Brief:

On February 27, the Supreme Court of India granted bail to Dr. Ajay Taware, the former medical superintendent of Sassoon General Hospital, who was arrested for allegedly tampering with the blood samples of the minor accused of crashing a Porsche car into a motorcycle in Pune, killing two persons. The relief was granted on the ground of parity with other accused.

Earlier, on February 2, the top court had granted bail to three other accused while observing that parents are often responsible for such incidents involving juveniles due to lack of control over their children. The accused—Amar Santish Gaikwad (an alleged middleman), Aditya Avinash Sood and Ashish Satish Mittal (parents of two other juveniles who were in the car)—were granted bail after the court noted that they had been in custody for about 18 months.

Sood (52) and Mittal (37) were arrested on August 19 last year after their blood samples were allegedly used in place of those of the two minors who were in the car along with the 17-year-old main accused at the time of the accident.

Earlier, on December 16 last year, the Bombay High Court had rejected the bail pleas of eight accused, including Gaikwad, Sood and Mittal.

Meanwhile, the Juvenile Justice Board had initially granted bail to the minor accused on lenient terms, including a direction to write a 300-word essay on road safety, which sparked nationwide outrage. Following the backlash, the Pune Police approached the board seeking a review of its decision, after which the JJB modified its order and sent the juvenile to an observation home.

The high court later ordered the release of the juvenile from the observation home. However, 10 accused—including his parents Vishal Agarwal and Shivani Agarwal, doctors Ajay Taware and Shreehari Halnor, Sassoon Hospital staffer Atul Ghatkamble, Sood, Mittal and Arun Kumar Singh—were sent to jail in connection with the alleged blood sample-swapping conspiracy.