Pune Porsche case: Police appeals against Juvenile Justice Board’s refusal to try accused as adult

The Pune police have approached a sessions court, challenging the Juvenile Justice Board's decision to try the 17-year-old accused in the deadly Porsche car crash as a minor rather than as an adult, an official said on 12 August, Tuesday.

The boy, son of a well-known real-estate developer, is accused of driving the luxury car in Kalyani Nagar area of Pune in an inebriated state and fatally knocking down two motorcycle-borne IT professionals, Anish Awadhiya and Ashwini Costa, in May 2024 — an incident that attracted nationwide attention.

In July, the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) rejected the Pune police's plea to treat the juvenile accused as an adult, stating the offence does not qualify as a "heinous crime".

An officer from the crime branch on Tuesday said that after obtaining necessary permissiond from the district collector, the Pune police approached the sessions court here and challenged the JJB order on 4 August.

Advocate Sarthi Pansare, who is assisting special public prosecutor Shishir Hiray in the Porsche car crash case, said that while moving the application in the sessions court, the prosecution argued the juvenile was in full knowledge about the consequences if he drives the car in an inebriated condition.

"Our demand is to conduct a psychological assessment of the juvenile and it can be done only after he is declared an adult in the case. We argued that this is an exceptional case and the juvenile should be treated as an adult," Pansare said.

Defence counsel Prashant Patil, representing the boy, had cited a Supreme Court judgement in the Shilpa Mittal vs State case, in which the apex court defined what qualifies as a heinous crime.

The guidelines decided by the Supreme Court are binding on everyone, however, the plea by prosecution is contrary to the apex court's judgement, Patil said.

The defence demanded that since the plea is contrary to the Supreme Court's guidelines, it is not maintainable, he said.

To define a certain crime as heinous, the prosecution must have a section (invoked in the case) in which minimum punishment is seven years, he said.

The JJB, in its order, stated the child should not be subjected to preliminary assessment under Section 15 of the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2015. The provision of preliminary assessment is only for heinous offences.

The teenager got bail hours after the horrific accident on 19 May last year.

The lenient bail terms, including asking the minor to write a 300-word essay on road safety, triggered a nationwide firestorm, following which he was sent to an observation home in Pune city three days later.

On 25 June 2024, the Bombay High Court directed that the boy be released immediately, saying the Juvenile Justice Board's orders remanding him to an observation home were illegal and the law regarding juveniles must be implemented fully.