Duo who put builder, docs in touch to exchange cash held

Pune: The city crime branch on Tuesday arrested two men, who allegedly facilitated contact between the father of the underage driver in the May 19 Porsche crash and the two arrested doctors of Sassoon hospital. The police said the duo handed over Rs3 lakh for swapping the teen’s blood sample to manipulate the test for alcohol content.Police identified the arrested duo as Ashfaque Basha Makandar (36), a resident of Dhanori, and Amar Santosh Gaikwad (27), a resident of Yerawada, both of whom they said undertake liasioning work with govt and local self-govt officials on behalf of various city builders and a politician.

A crime branch team on Tuesday afternoon produced them before a city court, which ordered their remand in police custody till June 10.Two techies were killed after the Porsche Taycan driven by the 17-year-old son of a city builder crashed into their two-wheeler in Kalyaninagar, around 2.30am on May 19. “We arrested Makandar and Gaikwad from a room in Mumbai’s Lalbaug late on Monday night after receiving a tip-off,” said additional commissioner of police (crime) Shailesh Balkawade.A senior police officer told TOI, “The duo knew people in various govt offices, civic bodies and more as part of their liasioning job. Makandar is close to the teenager’s father and after the accident, he called him, offering help to manage things. Makandar then contacted Atul Ghatkamble, a class IV employee at Sassoon’s mortuary, and sought his help to get in touch with a senior doctor or officer. Ghatkamble then gave him the contact of Dr Ajay Taware, head of the forensic sciences department.”The officer added, “After their chat with Taware, the duo collected Rs3 lakh in cash from the builder and handed it over to Ghatkamble, who kept Rs50,000 and gave the remainder of Rs2.50 lakh to casualty medical officer Dr Shrihari Halnor. The latter executed the blood sample swap. We are ascertaining the spot where the cash handover was done.”The police have already arrested Taware, Halnor and Ghatkamble on charges of changing the teen’s blood sample with that of his mother. They have recovered cash from Ghatkamble and Halnor. The police have also arrested the teen’s parents. All five are lodged in police custody until June 5, when they will be produced before a court.Cop team to visit JabalpurA team of police plan to soon visit Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh to inform the family members of the two techies killed in the accident — Aneesh Awadhiya and Ashwini Koshta — about the investigation. They will brief the two families about the progress of their probe so far and how the suspects have been arrested.
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