Pune Porsche Case: ‘A fraud was committed on the judicial system by completely changing evidence,' says senior lawyer Shishir Hiray

Indian Express

16-05-2025

Senior lawyer Shishir Hiray, who is the Special Public Prosecutor in the Porsche crash case, speaks to Sushant Kulkarni on the challenges in the prosecution of the multifaceted trial and the central point of the case.
The prosecution's case involves a complex set of accused individuals — ranging from the minor being tried before the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) to 10 adults being prosecuted in regular court, including the minor's parents, two doctors and a staffer from Sassoon Hospital, two alleged middlemen, and the fathers of the two passengers. Given the wide spectrum of individuals with different roles, what are the key legal and procedural challenges of such a multifaceted prosecution?
The basic challenge is how to ensure we have a speedy trial. We are working on the case of the CCL (Child in Conflict with Law) and also prosecuting the 10 accused in regular court and are facing as many number of defence lawyers. These accused are from the higher strata of society and those who have resources. With their resources they all can approach the higher courts and when that happens, it naturally delays the process in the lower court.
This is not a case where straight-jacket evidence is available like it happens in an open-and-shut case. There are a lot of technicalities involved. We will have to examine a wide range of witnesses including technical witnesses — especially for establishing before the court the conspiracy, motives and the act of swapping the blood samples. Chain of events that have taken place, will have to be established through not just the statement of the witnesses but also technical leads. Police investigation includes DNA test, DNA profiling which are comparatively newer branches of the law.
All the witnesses in the case are those who have been in subordinate roles to the accused. That is why deposing these witnesses and making sure they do not succumb to any pressures is going to be a big challenge.
Investigation officer ACP Ganesh Ingale has stated before the court earlier that witnesses were afraid of coming forward considering the background of the accused.
The possibility of the accused pressuring the witnesses will always be there till the time witnesses depose. The accused can use their financial weight, their positions etc.
What do you think is the most striking aspect of the probe and the central point of the prosecution's case?
The central point is that the blood sample of the intoxicated minor was swapped to fabricate evidence suggesting he was not intoxicated. The conspiracy was to then present this fabricated evidence before the court so that the adjudication will happen based on that. This is the most serious part of this case.
And this was done not just for the minor driver but also for the two minor co-passengers. Now, to do this, money power was used, bribes were given, samples were swapped, records were forged. This amounted to thwarting the judicial system. When I took over the case, I carefully studied the details of the investigation. I came to a realisation that this was a fraud done with the judicial administration system by completely changing the evidence. And that is what we have brought out in our case.
Where does the case against the CCL driver stand in the JJB?
We have submitted that this being a very serious offence, where two young lives were lost, the minor diver should be tried as an adult accused. That application is pending for adjudication.
Tell us about the possible timeline of the case in the coming days.
If there are no deliberate calculated hurdles created in the case, the charges are expected to be framed in the coming days. From a wider list of witnesses, we plan to examine around 35 witnesses as I see the case right now. A chargesheet has been filed by us against all the accused. The court is yet to frame charges. However, one of the accused, Dr Ajay Taware, has filed his discharge application before a court. And now I am expecting that as a tactic, all these accused will one by one file the discharge applications to prolong the trial. They will make attempts to delay the process.
Tell us about the technical evidence. The police had focused on gathering the technical evidence including an AI-based model of the accident.
The technical evidence of that nature is primarily against the CCL in the case of the accident. However, the technical and forensic evidence in the case of swapping of blood samples is also crucial that established the swapping of the blood samples and corruption behind it.
Prevention of Corruption Act has been invoked in the case as the government employees from Sassoon Hospital were part of the conspiracy and allegedly took bribes for it. How do you plan to bring that out?
So the evidence was tampered with as part of the conspiracy. We have concrete proof from the forensic sciences laboratories. Who swapped it? The doctors of Sassoon Hospital. At whose behest? We have technical evidence to prove that too. The money that exchanged hands has been recovered. We have sufficient evidence to prove the charges of corruption. I have a theoretical argument here. Had even one of the accused involved in the conspiracy acted prudently and lawfully, this offence could not have taken place. It is all of their involvement and connivance which has led to the commission of this offence.
What is the status of the accused in the case?
Except the accused mother of the CCL, all other accused are currently behind bars. She too was released on bail only on the ground that she is a woman and because there is a specific provision under Section 437 of the Criminal Procedure Code. Under this, even in the case of a serious offence, bail can be granted only on the grounds that an accused is a woman. This bail was not on the grounds of merit. Rather that has been my say on the issue when her bail application was pending before the High Court, the accused took an indirect route to apex court. According to me, they have again played with the judicial administration system here. I am categorically saying they have again played with the system.
Sushant Kulkarni is a Special Correspondent with The Indian Express in Pune with 12+ years of experience covering issues related to Crime, Defence, Internal Security and Courts. He has been associated with the Indian Express since July 2010.
Sushant has extensively reported on law and order issues of Pune and surrounding area, Cyber crime, narcotics trade and terrorism. His coverage in the Defence beat includes operational aspects of the three services, the defence research and development and issues related to key defence establishments. He has covered several sensitive cases in the courts at Pune.
Sushant is an avid photographer, plays harmonica and loves cooking. ... Read More