MUMBAI: Opposing businessman Aditya Sood’s plea seeking discharge in the 2024 Pune Porsche crash case, the Pune police on Monday told the Bombay High Court that he was “an active participant in a premeditated conspiracy” to swap blood samples in an attempt to shield the minor driver from the consequences of allegedly driving drunk.
Event Context
The case stems from the early hours of May 19, 2024, when a speeding Porsche allegedly driven by 17-year-old Vedant Agarwal under the influence of alcohol rammed into a motorcycle in Pune’s Kalyaninagar area, killing two 24-year-old IT professionals, Aneesh Awadhiya and Ashwini Koshta, on the spot. Two of the minor’s friends and a chauffeur were also reportedly in the car. The juvenile was briefly detained before being controversially granted bail within hours by Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) member L N Danavade.
Player Focus
In an affidavit filed before the high court, assistant commissioner of police (ACP) Shailesh Sankhe said the conspiracy was aimed at nullifying the alcohol test of the 17-year-old driver by replacing blood samples with those of family members, thereby protecting him from legal consequences arising out of “reckless driving under extreme influence of alcohol”.
Team Analysis
Sood approached the Bombay High Court through advocate Abid Mulani on May 25 after a Pune sessions court rejected his discharge application and decided to frame charges against him and the other accused. The charges include criminal conspiracy under Section 120-B of the Indian Penal Code, along with offences relating to destruction of evidence, offering gratification to shield an offender, forgery, use of forged documents and common intention under Sections 201, 214, 466, 467, 468, 471 read with Section 34 of the IPC, besides Section 12 of the Prevention of Corruption Act for abetment of corruption.
Challenging the sessions court’s order as having been passed “mechanically”, Sood argued that the prosecution’s evidence was equally consistent with the conduct of a parent merely complying with official directions.
“Every piece of material relied upon by the prosecution against me is equally consistent with the explanation that I was a parent, who attended a hospital to be with his detained minor son and provided a blood sample when instructed to do so by the authorities. This is not the profile of a conspirator; this is the profile of a cooperating parent acting under the directions of law enforcement,” his plea states.
The police, however, rejected that contention, asserting that Sood’s role “cannot be segregated” from that of the other accused. The affidavit alleges that he acted in active connivance with the parents of the “child in conflict with law” (CCL), who was driving the Porsche, as well as doctors and employees of Sassoon General Hospital to destroy crucial evidence.
“He has repeatedly attempted to misuse and abuse the process of law and has interfered with the due administration of justice by adopting various tactics to obstruct the judicial proceedings and administration of judicial system by tampering with the blood samples, thereby committing forgery of valuable security, on the strength of bribe amount, which is punishable with imprisonment for life,” the affidavit states.
The police further argued that the fact that Sood’s son has not been arraigned as an accused in the main Porsche crash case cannot absolve Sood of his independent criminal liability for allegedly substituting blood samples and manipulating hospital medical records.
This, the prosecution said, constituted a separate and deliberate offence that warranted prosecution irrespective of whether his son was eventually chargesheeted in the principal case.
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Sood is among the 10 people arrested in connection with the alleged blood sample swapping conspiracy. According to the prosecution, he allegedly gave his own blood sample in place of that of his minor son, who was also said to be present in the Porsche at the time of the crash.
The accused include doctors and staff of Sassoon General Hospital, who allegedly played an active role in replacing the blood samples. Sood was granted bail by the Supreme Court on February 2, 2026.
