 "Pray, language lessons, outdoor games: What Pune Porsche crash accused teen will do at remand home")
A 17-year-old boy allegedly involved in a car accident in Pune that claimed two lives has been shifted to an observation/rehabilitation home till 5 June.
“The Child-in-Conflict with Law (CCL) was immediately sent to the Nehru Udyog Kendra observation home, located at Yerawada, where he is staying with the other CCLs,” the official from the facility said.
The development came after the Pune Juvenile court on Wednesday, 22 May, cancelled the bail granted to the minor three days ago, following an outcry over his quick bail.
Also, a sessions court yesterday remanded his father, a real estate developer, in police custody till 24 May.
The minor will have a fixed routine, and here’s what his schedule looks like.
The minor’s life in remand home
Also known as juvenile homes or remand homes, more than 30 minors are currently lodged at the observation home .
The remand home’s daily routine starts with a breakfast of eggs, milk, poha, and upma, which is provided from 8 to 10 am, according to News18.
He would then join others in prayer at 11 am, following which he would start his language classes.
As per the report, once lunch is served, the prisoners are allowed to rest in their dorms until four o’clock in the afternoon.
Snacks are served at 4 pm, and then there’s TV for an hour and two hours of outdoor football and volleyball activity, as per NDTV.
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More ShortsThe inmates would be given a basic dinner of rice, chapati, and vegetables at 7 pm, and at 8 pm, they would be taken back to their dorms for the night.
A senior police official said that during his stay at the observation home, the juvenile will also undergo psychological assessments.
Advocate Prashant Patil, who represented the juvenile at the JJB hearing, said during the remand, the CCL will be kept at the rehabilitation home, with specific parameters set for this period.
“The board has given directions regarding providing a psychologist, psychiatrist, or a counsellor for the CCL to support his mental health and help reintegrate him into the mainstream,” he said, as per PTI.
Also read: Pune Porsche crash: Can the 17-year-old boy, who ‘killed 2’, be tried as an adult?
The horrific car crash
The Porsche car, allegedly driven by the teenager, who the police claim was drunk at the time, fatally knocked down two motorbike-borne software engineers, Aneesh Awadhiya and his friend Ashwini Koshta, both 24, at Kalyani Nagar in Maharashtra’s Pune city in the early hours of Sunday.
The juvenile, who was 17 years and 8 months old, was four months under the legal driving age.
Police have registered an FIR against the minor under IPC sections 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 304 A (causing death by negligence), 279 (rash driving) and relevant sections of the Motor Vehicles Act.
The teenager, son of real estate developer Vishal Agarwal (50), was subsequently produced before the JJB which granted him bail within 15 hours of the horrific incident.
The teen’s lawyer, Prashant Patil, said the court granted bail on certain conditions, such as “working with the traffic police of Yerwada for 15 days,” and write a 300-word essay on the ‘effect of a road accident and their solution’.
Police later approached the JJB again, seeking a review of its order.
Following an outcry over bail, the JJB on Wednesday remanded the boy to the observation home till June 5.
Patil said the bail granted on Sunday has not been cancelled.
“It is a modification of the earlier order… Cancellation of bail means setting aside the earlier order and taking the person in custody. Here, it is not a custody. It is a rehab home,” he told reporters.
According to Patil, the process of deciding whether a juvenile should be treated as an adult accused can take at least two months as reports of psychiatrists and counsellors among others are called for, and then the JJB gives its decision.
Also read: Pune Porsche crash: How a night out turned tragic for two young techies
Charges against the minor’s father
The sessions court earlier on Wednesday remanded Vishal Agarwal (50), the minor’s father, and two employees of Hotel Blak Club, Nitesh Shevani and Jayesh Gavkar, in police custody till 24 May.
The police registered a case against his father under sections 75 and 77 of the Juvenile Justice Act, and against the owner and employees of two bars which the boy had visited before Sunday’s accident for “serving alcohol to an underage person.”
Section 75 deals with “willful neglect of a child, or exposing a child to mental or physical illnesses,” while section 77 deals with supplying a child with intoxicating liquor or drugs.
According to the FIR, the real estate developer gave his son the car despite knowing that the boy did not have a driving license, thus endangering his life, and allowed him to party even while knowing that he drinks alcohol.
Calls for action
Meanwhile, activist Prince Singhal, the founder of Community Against Drunken Driving (CADD), a non-profit organisation, in a statement on Wednesday said he has written to Union Home Minister Amit Shah to take cognisance of the Pune accident case and direct for action against the guilty.
The activist said he has sought the minister’s immediate intervention into the case “which was wrong at so many levels”.
“The minor went to two night clubs and had alcohol, and this was only possible because bars and pubs do not maintain mandatory age checks and serve to anyone who pays money. These establishments are not penalised for this by the excise department,” he claimed.
The minor was allowed to leave the bar premises in a drunken state and no one stopped him from driving in an inebriated condition, Singhal further claimed.
“Even after the arrest, alcohol test was not done immediately on the minor as should be done within the first two hours. For the same, the investigating officer should be held liable and arrested,” he added.
What’s next
A case against the minor is being prepared by the Pune police.
Because of the gravity of the situation, the police have insisted that they intend to try the youngster as an adult.
According to Pune Police Commissioner Amitesh Kumar, who was cited by NDTV, the 17-year-old accused knew that his actions resulted in death.
“This case is not about an accident in which a mistake happened under the influence of alcohol and people died. Our case is that he had full knowledge that his conduct… He parties in two bars, and rashly drives a car without a number plate on a narrow, congested street. He was fully in his senses and he knew that people may die because of his actions. Our case is under Section 304 of IPC, which carries a jail term of 10 years.”
Under certain conditions, Children in Conflict with Law (CCL) may be tried as adults under Section 15 of the Juvenile Justice Act.
Anybody under the age of eighteen is considered a child, according to the law.
Whether or not a child is considered an adult and whether or not they are in legal trouble depends on how old they were on the date of the offence.
With inputs from agencies
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