Umaria: The family of Anish Awadhiya, one of the two software engineers killed in Pune in 2024 after a Porsche car, allegedly driven by a drunk juvenile, smashed into their two-wheeler, has expressed dismay at the Supreme Court order to grant bail to three accused in the case.
The three who were granted bail are accused of tampering with blood samples of the accused after the incident. Awadhiya’s family has said that this decision of the Supreme Court will send a wrong message to society.
On May 19, 2024, the Porsche, allegedly driven by a 17-year-old knocked down Awadhiya and Ashwini Koshta in Pune’s Kalyani Nagar. Both died due to the impact.
Those who were granted bail on Monday are Amar Santish Gaikwad (alleged middleman), Aditya Avinash Sood and Ashish Satish Mittal (parents of two other juveniles in the car). The Supreme Court held that parents cannot be blamed for such incidents involving juveniles as they don’t have control over their children.
Both Sood and Mittal are accused of a conspiracy to replace the blood samples of their children. Mittal is a friend of the main accused’s father, while Sood is the father of the boy who was seated on the rear seat of the car.
Gaikwad is a middleman who had allegedly taken Rs 3 lakh to “manipulate” the blood report.
Awadhiya’s grandfather, Atmaram Awadhiya, told PTI Videos that the accused should not have been granted bail. Since the main accused belonged to a wealthy family, fraudulent means were adopted from the very beginning to protect the man, he alleged.
“It was such a major incident, and now bail has been granted,” he lamented.
His father, Omprakash Awadhiya, said the three accused who were granted bail had tampered with blood samples to shield the main accused.
“We want the bail to be cancelled for the sake of justice,” he said.
The Court, while granting bail to the three accused, noted that they had been in jail for 18 months. Sood (52) and Mittal (37) were arrested on August 19 last year.
It has been alleged that their blood samples were used for tests in connection with two minors who were in the car along with the 17-year-old main accused at the time of the accident.
On December 16, 2025, the Bombay High Court had rejected the bail pleas of eight accused, including Gaikwad, Sood and Mittal, in the case.
After the incident, the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) had granted bail to the minor accused on lenient terms, sparking nationwide outrage. The bail conditions included writing a 300-word essay on road safety.
After the outrage, the Pune police approached the JJB to review its decision.
The board then modified its order and sent the juvenile to an observation home. The High Court, however, ordered the release of the juvenile in June 2024.
