Pune Porche Case: Supreme Court grants bail to three accused

Supreme Court has granted bail to three persons accused in the 2024 Pune Porsche hit and-run case that claimed two lives, including businessmen Ashish Mittal and Aditya Sood, noting that they had remained in custody for nearly 18 months.

A bench comprising Justices BV Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan has ordered the release of Mittal, Sood, and Amar Santhosh Gaikwad, subject to conditions to be imposed by the trial court. The accused had approached the Supreme Court challenging the Bombay High Court’s earlier order rejecting their bail applications.

In Pune, a Porsche car, which did not have registration plates, being driven in an extremely rash and negligent manner, under drunken condition by a child in conflict of law hit a Bajaj Pulsar Motorcycle from the backside, thereby causing the death of the victims, who were riding the motorcycle.

The two businessmen were accused of swapping their blood samples with those of two minor occupants of the vehicle other than the alleged minor driver, who were purportedly under the influence of alcohol at the time of the incident. They have been booked under various provisions of the Indian Penal Code and the Prevention of Corruption Act for offences including forgery, tampering with evidence, and bribery.

A single-judge bench of Justice Shyam Chandak had in December 2025 dismissed the pleas filed by Vishal Agarwal (father of the alleged minor driver), Ashish Mittal, Aditya Sood, Arunkumar Singh, Ashpak Makandar, Amar Gaikwad, Dr Ajay Taware, and Dr Shrihari Halnor.

Dr Ajay Taware, then Head of the Forensic Medicine Department, and Dr Shrihari Halnor, Chief Medical Officer, were accused of facilitating the replacement of blood samples of the minor accused. According to the investigating authority, one of the doctors i.e. Dr. Halnor at the Sassoon General Hospital, Pune, accepted illegal gratification of 3 Lakhs from the parents of the child in conflict with law, who was driving the Porsche car, in order to take the blood sample of the mother of the said child in conflict with the law and to show the same as being that of the child in conflict with law, further forwarding it for analysis. This was done with the connivance of another doctor named Dr. Taware and other persons, all of whom have been arraigned as accused persons.

Ashpak Makandar and Amar Gaikwad were alleged to be middlemen who connected Vishal Agarwal with the doctors for the purpose of swapping the samples. According to the prosecution, Aditya Sood allegedly provided his blood sample to replace that of his minor son, while Ashish Mittal allegedly substituted his blood sample with that of Arunkumar Singh’s son. The High Court had noted that there was a strong prima facie case of a criminal conspiracy to tamper with prosecution evidence and to create false evidence to protect the juvenile who was driving the vehicle at the time of the accident.

Allegedly false medical certificates were prepared to show that the child in conflict with law and his friends were not under the influence of alcohol. High court had further observed that these acts were allegedly committed in exchange for bribe amounts, with the objective of saving the juvenile from prosecution for offences including culpable homicide under Section 304 of the IPC.

Before the High Court, the accused alleged violation of their fundamental rights under Articles 21 and 22 of the Constitution, claiming that the grounds of arrest were not furnished in writing. High Court held that lapses in investigation do not automatically entitle an accused to bail and emphasised that victims are equally entitled to protection of law under Article 14 of the Constitution.

Case Title: Ashish Satish Mittal vs. State of Maharashtra

Bench: Justices Nagarathna and Bhuyan

Order Date: February 2, 2026