Dr Ajay Tawari, head of the forensic department of the government Sassoon Hospital, spoke to Vishal Agarwal, father of the Pune Porsche crash accused, at least 14 times over the phone.
The police suspect that the calls were to discuss “changing blood samples” as the conversations took place when the samples were being collected for testing.
Tawari, along with the hospital’s chief medical officer Dr Srihari Halnoor and employee Atul Ghattcampbell, was arrested on May 19 for allegedly destroying the minor’s blood samples taken after the incident and replacing them with someone else’s blood samples, which had no traces of alcohol.
Two IT professionals were killed when their motorcycle collided with a speeding Porsche allegedly driven by a 17-year-old boy in the early hours of May 19 in Pune’s Kalyani Nagar area. The blood report is a crucial piece of evidence as the police claim that the teenager had visited the bar twice before the incident took place.
Officials told News18 that the first call between Tawar and Agarwal took place around 8:45 am, followed by 14 calls till 11 am. These conversations took place via WhatsApp, FaceTime and regular calls.
Dr Ajay Tawar’s residence sought
According to officials, during the Pune Police search, some documents related to previous cases, where Dr Tawar was under investigation, were recovered from his residence.
Sources said the police are trying to find out how much money the Agarwal family had promised or provided to Tawar.
Reportedly, the staff of Sassoon Hospital complained to the vigilance committee that Dr Tawar was asking his staff to bring alcohol to the hospital.
A three-member committee probing the alleged tampering of blood samples of the teen driver on Tuesday visited Sasoon General Hospital and also met police officials probing the case.
Sources said the committee members visited the emergency department and also learnt about the procedure for collecting blood samples, preserving them and sending them to the forensic laboratory.
On Tuesday, Judicial Magistrate First Class A Pandey sent Vishal Agarwal to police custody till May 31 in a case in which he and his father Surendra Agarwal are accused of pressuring the family driver to take the blame for the accident to save the boy.
In this case, the minor’s grandfather, Surendra Agarwal, has already been arrested for kidnapping the driver and keeping him in illegal confinement. Justice Pandey on Tuesday extended his police custody till May 31.
Vishal Agarwal (50) was earlier arrested under the Juvenile Justice Act for endangering a minor by providing him a car.
