The Pune police on Monday has moved a sessions court for an order seeking a 17-year-old boy’s trial as an adult in Sunday’s accident that killed two techies. The boy was driving a Porsche Taycan and hit a motorcycle near a pub around 2.30 am.
In case the court replaces Section 304-A with Section 304, the maximum punishment, in the event of a conviction, can be up to 10 years instead of two years as provided under Section 304-A.
The teenager is the son of a prominent Pune builder. The police on Monday said the car was being driven at 160 kmph at the time of the crash.
On Sunday, Pune’s Juvenile Justice Board, while ordering the boy’s release on certain conditions, had rejected the police’s plea for his trial as an adult.
The board’s decision to grant the youngster bail on the same day while asking him to write an essay on road accidents and help traffic police has drawn considerable criticism.
Pune police commissioner Amitesh Kumar said, “We have approached the court with a plea to replace Section 304-A (causing death by rash and negligent driving) with the more stringent Section 304 (culpable homicide) of IPC in the accident FIR as the teenager is seen drinking in the CCTV footage recovered from the two pubs he had visited before the accident. We took a call on invoking the charge of drunk driving.”
‘Heinous crime’
Kumar, told reporters: “It’s a heinous crime considering that the minor driver has admitted before the board about his addiction to liquor and yet he was driving the car without any eligibility to drive, and that too at a high speed.”
Regarding allegations of favouritism to the boy at Yerawada police station, Fadnavis said, “I have told Kumar to go into the appeal against the order of the Judicial Magistrate First Class and also asked him to verify the CCTV footage at the police station to ascertain and investigate the accusations of favouritism in the police station.”
On specific instructions to the police chief regarding pubs and bars, Fadnavis said strict action would be taken against the pubs and bars involved. If any violation is found, they should be made co-accused, he added.
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