Pune officials have sealed a city bar that served alcohol to a 17-year-old boy and his friends in the early hours of Monday, after which the drunk teen drove and rammed a high-performance Porsche sports car into a bike carrying two people, both of whom were killed. The legal drinking age in the state of Maharashtra is 25, which means it was illegal for the bar to serve liquor to the boy or his friends.
Hours after the horrific incident – which the family of Aneesh Awadhiya, who was driving the two-wheeler, have insisted was “murder” – the 17-year-old, the son of a prominent city-based realtor, was given bail.
READ | “Murder, Not Accident”: Family Of Techie Killed In Pune Porsche Crash
Even more shocking was one of the judge’s conditions – to write a 300-word essay on road safety.
Action against the bar comes a day after the police filed a case against the establishment; CCTV footage from inside the premises confirmed liquor had been served to the boy and his friends.
Hours earlier the boy’s father – who also faces a police case – was arrested.
READ | Crime Branch To Probe Pune Porsche Crash, Teen Driver’s Father Arrested
The boy’s father and the pub – named as Cosie – face cases under Section 75 and 77 of the Juvenile Justice Act, which relate to neglect of minors and supplying them with liquor or narcotics.
The case, which has led to political and civil society pressure, particularly over how quickly bail was given, and the ridiculous terms set, has been handed to Pune Police’s Crime Branch.
According to witnesses, the accident took place at 2.15 am. The speeding Porsche – reportedly driven at 200 km per hour – rammed the bike driven by Mr Awadhiya and carrying Ashwini Costa, both 24 years old. Witnesses said Ms Costa was thrown 20 feet in the air and Mr Awadhiya was flung into a parked car.
Ms Costa’s family has demanded the boy’s bail be cancelled. Her uncles, Jugal Kishore and Sachin Bokde, said, “We are in shock. It is condemnable he got bail in 15 hours. He and his parents should be investigated… because of him, an innocent girl, who had seen nothing of life, has died.”.
After colliding with the bike, the car hit the pavement and came to a stop.
“The accident took place around 2.15 am. The car was at full speed. The driver was fleeing after the car hit the bike, but the airbags deployed. He could not see the road and parked the car. And locals caught them. Besides the driver, there were two occupants in the car. One of them escaped. The crowd beat up the other two,” said an eyewitness, an auto-rickshaw operator waiting for a ride.
Meanwhile, in response to the boy getting bail, the police have filed an application to try him as an adult. This move is grounded in the belief the crime’s gravity warrants harsher judicial scrutiny. “We have taken yesterday’s incident seriously. We have acted under section 304 of IPC (the Indian Penal Code), which is a non-bailable section as it was a heinous crime,” Pune Police Commissioner Amitesh Kumar said.
