Doctor who swapped teen's blood sample in Pune Porsche crash ran 'cleaning' racket: Report

Dr Ajay Tawade has earlier faced serious allegations too. He was accused in drug cases as well as a kidney transplant racket. Allegedly, Tawade was elevated to the forensic department head post after an MLA and a minister recommended his name.

The Pune Porsche accident where an allegedly intoxicated 17-year-old hit and killed two techies has thrown up a new twist. The doctor who helped in switching the accused's blood samples appears to have provided the same 'service' to numerous people through a broker network, NDTV reported citing police sources.

Dr Ajay Tawade, head of Sassoon Hospital's Forensic Medical Department, has been arrested in this case and is currently in judicial custody. He happens to be one of the doctors who allegedly switched the minor's blood samples with his mother's to ensure that alcohol would not show up in the test report.

The publication, citing sources in the Pune Crime Branch, told the publication that the probe has revealed that this was not Dr Tawade's first stint. In other high-profile cases involving drunk drivers running over and killing others, the doctor's brokers who are spread across Pune and four other Western Maharashtra districts would contact the families and offer to swap the blood samples with clean ones so the accused could get off on a milder charge.

A source, NDTV reported, said that the brokers would demand lakhs for this service, usually asking for more than Rs 5 lakh. This money would then go to Tawade with the brokers keeping a cut.

The doctor in question has earlier faced serious allegations too. He was accused in drug cases as well as a kidney transplant racket. Allegedly, Tawade was elevated to the forensic department head post after an MLA and a minister recommended his name.

Vinayak Kale, dean of Sassoon Hospital, said that Maharashtra Medical Education Minister Hasan Mushrif and MLA Sunil Tingre, MLAs from Ajit Pawar's NCP, had submitted a letter asking for Tawade to be made head of department. Kale was sent on compulsory leave soon after he made this statement.

Tingre was also accused of visiting the Yerwada police station after the car crash and pressuring officials to go easy.

The accident took place on May 19 around 2.15 am. The teen was drinking with his friends in two Pune pubs, celebrating his Class 12 results, and later mowed down two 24-year-old IT professionals on their bike in the city's Kalyani Nagar area. The 17-year-old was driving a Rs 2.5 crore Porsche at more than 150 kmph.