Treat Pune Porsche crash accused as child, despite seriousness of crime: Bombay HC orders release

The Bombay High Court, on Tuesday, ordered the release of the 17-year-old boy accused in the Pune Porsche crash case from an observation home.

The court declared the remand order illegal and set it aside. It also said that the juvenile accused in the Pune Porsche crash case should be handed into the care of his paternal aunt since his parents and grandfather are presently behind bars.

‘Must treat him as any child in CCL’

“We allow the habeas corpus and order his release. We are bound by law. The aims and objectives of the Juvenile Justice Act and must treat him as any child in conflict with law (CCL) separately from adults, despite the seriousness of the crime,” a division bench of Justice Bharati Dangre and Justice Manjusha Deshpande said.

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The court further said amid the “immediate reaction to the accident, the kneejerk reaction and the public outcry, the CCL’s age was not considered.”

Granting relief to the minor accused in the Pune accident case, the high court said that though the accident was unfortunate, he cannot be kept in an observation home.

“The CCL is under 18 years old. His age needs to be considered. CCLs are to be considered differently,” the court said.

“We must, however, clarify that this is the rehabilitation and reintegration of the child, which is the primary object of the act and he is already referred to a psychologist and is undergoing therapy with de-addiction centre and he shall continue participating in such sessions,” the High Court observed.

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The court was hearing a plea filed by the accused’s aunt against alleged illegal remand of the minor in an observation home and sought that he be released.

The HC also declared the impugned remand orders passed by the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) illegal and without jurisdiction.

‘Juvenile in trauma’, says HC

Justices Dangre and Deshpande, last week, observed that remanding the minor to an observation home after granting bail nullifies the purpose of bail.

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

What’s the Pune Porsche crash case?

On June 19, the juvenile, a son of a prominent builder in Pune, allegedly driving his Porche Taycan under the influence of alcohol, ran over a motorcycle in the Kalyani Nagar area, killing two young techies.

The vehicle reportedly dragged one of the two people on the bike and finally came to stop after hitting another two wheeler and a car.

The minor, who did not have a valid driving licence, was booked for rash and negligent driving and causing harm by endangering safety of lives and death by negligence under sections 304A, 279, 337 and 338 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) along with provisions of the Maharashtra Motor Vehicles Act.

The boy was granted bail on May 19 within 15 hours of police detention.

After protests and uproar, he was later remanded to an observation home.

A lot of wrongdoing were done by the accused’s family to prove their ward innocent. They tried to showcase that their family driver was driving the car at the time of the accident, but were caught as the police had adequate CCTV footage to prove that the minor was driving the Porsche.

The boy’s father even bribed the doctors to swap his son’s blood samples to show that he was not drunk at the time of the accident.

The minor’s parents, as well as his grandfather, were arrested in various cases registered against them in connection with the accident, including destroying evidence, coercing the family driver to allegedly take the blame that he was the one driving the car instead of the minor.