The family of one of the two engineers killed in the 2024 Pune Porsche accident has expressed disappointment after the Supreme Court granted bail to three accused of tampering with blood samples following the crash, calling the decision a wrong signal to society. The incident occurred on May 19, 2024, when a Porsche, allegedly driven by a 17-year-old under the influence of alcohol, fatally struck IT professionals Anish Awadhiya and Ashwini Koshta in Pune’s Kalyani Nagar area.

On Monday, the Supreme Court granted bail to Amar Santish Gaikwad (alleged middleman), Aditya Avinash Sood, and Ashish Satish Mittal (parents of two other juveniles in the car), noting that parents bear responsibility for incidents involving minors, as they cannot fully control their children. Sood and Mittal are accused of conspiring to replace their children’s blood samples, while Mittal is a friend of the main accused’s father and Gaikwad allegedly took Rs 3 lakh to manipulate the blood report.

Reacting to the decision, Anish’s family said justice had not been served. His grandfather, Atmaram Awadhiya, claimed the accused should not have received bail and alleged that the wealthy background of the main accused allowed fraudulent measures to protect him from the start. Anish’s father, Omprakash Awadhiya, said the accused tampered with blood samples to shield the main culprit and demanded the cancellation of their bail.

The Supreme Court noted that the three had already spent 18 months in jail. Sood (52) and Mittal (37) were arrested on August 19 of last year, and their blood samples were tested in connection with two minors in the car at the time of the accident. The Bombay High Court had earlier rejected the bail pleas of eight accused, including Gaikwad, Sood, and Mittal, in December 2024.

The Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) had granted bail to the minor accused under lenient terms, including writing a 300-word essay on road safety, sparking nationwide outrage. Following public backlash, the Pune police requested a review, and the JJB sent the juvenile to an observation home. In June 2024, the high court ordered the minor’s release. In total, ten accused—including the juvenile’s parents Vishal Agarwal and Shivani Agarwal, doctors Ajay Tawre and Shreehari Halnor, Sassoon Hospital staffer Atul Ghatkamble, Sood, Mittal, Arun Kumar Singh, and two middlemen—were sent to jail in connection with the blood sample tampering case.