Decision on adult trial deferred as teen’s fate hangs in balance
Builder Vishal Agarwal, the accused’s father, is brought at Pune Police Commissioner’s office after his arrest. Pic/PTI; The Porsche car found without a number plate. Pic/PTI
The Pune Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) has placed the 17-and-a-half-year-old boy accused of causing a fatal accident, which resulted in the death of two techies while driving a Porsche car, in an observation home in Yerwada until June 5. The decision on whether to treat him as an adult will be made later, but it wasn't discussed
on Wednesday.
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Earlier, the JJB had granted him bail but asked him to appear on Wednesday. The boy, along with his family and lawyers, arrived at the JJB premises around noon.
After hearing arguments from the defence and prosecution lawyers, the three-member JJB ruled on Wednesday evening that the boy be remanded to the juvenile observation home in Yerawada till June 5. The decision on the police's request to try him as an adult will be made later after completing some formalities, according to an official.
The minor was brought before the JJB in Pune on Sunday afternoon following his detention after the accident on Sunday. The police had requested his custody at a juvenile observation home and appealed for him to be tried as an adult. However, the JJB, which had only one non-judicial member present instead of its full three members, rejected both applications and granted bail to the accused under various conditions, including writing an essay and studying traffic safety norms. The Pune police then contested this decision in the Pune district court, which referred the matter back to the JJB to be reconsidered in accordance with the Juvenile Justice Act.
On Tuesday, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who also serves as the Home Minister, expressed shock at the extremely lenient bail granted by the Juvenile Justice Board to the 17-year-old boy, despite the allegation of causing the death of two people with a speeding Porsche in Pune.
Aneesh Awadhiya and Ashwani Koshtha, engineers working in Pune's Kalyani Nagar area, were killed when the speeding Porsche, driven by the 17-and-a-half-year-old son of a Pune realtor, collided with their motorcycle in the Yerwada area early on Sunday.
Agencies
Sunday
Day of the accident
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