The grandfather of the Pune teenager involved in a late-night, drunken Porsche accident that killed two 24-year-old techies has been arrested. According to police sources, the arrest followed allegations from the family’s driver, who claimed he was wrongfully confined, threatened, and pressured to take the blame for the incident. The grandfather faces charges under IPC sections for kidnapping and wrongful confinement.

Police reported yesterday that efforts were made to coerce the driver into taking responsibility for the accident shortly after it occurred. Following the crash, the grandfather allegedly locked the driver up, urging him to assume the blame as the family sought to protect the minor. He also assured the driver that the family would secure his release, the sources added.

"The teen's grandfather and father allegedly took the driver's phone, put him in confinement in his house on the premises of their bungalow from May 19 to May 20. The driver was freed by his wife," said an official from the crime branch, which is probing the case.

Two engineers, Ashwini Kostha and Anish Awadhiya, were on a bike when they were struck from behind by a Porsche traveling at 200 km per hour. Both died instantly. The police have reported that the 17-year-old driver, the son of a prominent Pune realtor, was heavily intoxicated at the time of the accident. Despite the severity of the incident, the teenager was granted bail within 15 hours under what many consider lenient conditions: he was required to write a 300-word essay on road accidents, work with traffic police for 15 days, and seek counseling for his drinking habit.

Amid nationwide outrage, the Juvenile Justice Board later revised the initial order, sending the teenager to an observation home until a police request to try him as an adult is decided. Additionally, the boy's father and the staff of two bars the teenager visited that night were arrested under relevant sections of the Juvenile Justice Act.

The case has also drawn attention to the family's connections with the underworld.

The roots of the matter trace back to a 2009 incident involving an attack on Shiv Sena corporator Ajay Bhosale. According to the CBI chargesheet filed in the case, the boy's grandfather was embroiled in a property dispute with his brother and allegedly sought mediation from Chhota Rajan. The gangster then reached out to Shiv Sena corporator Ajay Bhosale, who had ties with the brother. However, Mr. Bhosale, preoccupied with the Assembly polls that year, declined to intervene. Suspecting that the Shiv Sena leader was supporting his brother, the boy's grandfather purportedly requested Chhota Rajan to eliminate him, as outlined in the CBI chargesheet. Subsequently, a gunshot was fired at the Shiv Sena leader's car near Pune's Koregaon Park, though it missed him and struck his driver instead, causing injuries.