Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut on Tuesday demanded the suspension of Pune Police Commissioner Amitesh Kumar for "trying to protect" the 17-year-old who killed two persons with his Porsche in the Kalyani Nagar area early on Sunday.
"Police Commissioner should be suspended. He tried to protect the accused. A young couple was killed and the accused was granted bail within hours. In the video, it can be seen that he was drunk, but his medical report was negative. Who is helping the accused? Who is this Police Commissioner? He should be removed or the people of Pune will come on the streets," news agency ANI quoted Raut as saying.
Priyanka Chaturvedi, also a Shiv Sena (UBT) leader, took to X (formerly Twitter) and said she would like to see "those who helped the accused and his family also prosecuted in this case." "If there hadn’t been citizen outrage, the Pune Police, administration, and the Ajit Pawar faction MLA would have just let the guilty minor get away with a minor rap despite him having murdered two people due to drunk and rash driving. This corrupt nexus of ‘power and connections’ needs to end," the Rajya Sabha MP wrote.
Meanwhile, police detained the father of the minor on Tuesday morning, officials said. The father of the minor was identified as Vishal Agarwal. According to Kumar, the father of the minor accused was detained from Sambhajinagar this morning.
Earlier on Monday, Kumar said that they will seek permission from a higher court to try the 17-year-old as an adult. "On Sunday, we moved an application before the Juvenile Justice Board seeking permission to try the juvenile as an adult and send him to an observation home as the crime is heinous, but the plea was rejected. We are now approaching the sessions court with the same plea," he said.
The blood report is yet to be received, but the preliminary probe showed the juvenile was drunk at the time of the accident, Kumar stated. "The CCTV footage of the bar clearly shows the juvenile consuming alcohol. There is no doubt that the juvenile was driving the car after consuming alcohol. We will submit all these facts to the court," he added.
