Farmer held in Undri hit-&-run charged with destroying evidence for removing SUV’s number plates

Pune: The Kalepadal police on Thursday invoked the charge of causing disappearance of evidence against the farmer arrested in Undri hit-and-run case for removing number plates of the sports utility vehicle and concealing those after the accident on Tuesday morning.
The arrested farmer's friend, Darshan Sadashiv Chavan (21) from Bhintadenagar at Hole Vasti in Undri, was arrested for abetting the crime. Both Chavan and the farmer, Sameer Ganesh Kad (32), were produced before a magisterial court, which ordered their custodial remand till April 5.
Gad's sports utility vehicle (SUV) had fatally hit security firm manager Sujitkumar Basantprasad Singh when he was jogging near Nyati Ebony society's compound wall in Undri on Tuesday.
Senior police inspector Mansing Patil said, "We have invoked the provisions of Section 238 (A) of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) against Kad after investigations established that he had removed the number plates of Tata Nexon SUV intentionally to mislead the investigators. We had earlier charged Kad with culpable homicide not amounting to murder under Section 105 of the BNS because he had sped away without informing the police."
Sub-inspector Anil Nimbalkar, the investigating officer in the case, said, "Investigations revealed that Chavan was seated next to Kad in the speeding SUV at the time of the accident. After Kad lost control over the vehicle while negotiating a turn and hit the victim, Chavan instigated him to accelerate the SUV and escape."
He said Kad could have stopped and helped in rushing the critically injured victim to a hospital, but he opted to escape. Chavan, at the behest of Kad, concealed the vehicle at Autadewadi in Handewadi and removed the number plates to destroy evidence, the officer said.
Nimbalkar produced Kad and Chavan before the court of judicial magistrate first class, Prachi Rathod, and filed a remand report for seeking custodial remand for five days. Assistant public prosecutor Jyoti Waghmare told the court that the custodial interrogation of the duo was essential to recover the number plates of the vehicle and question them as to why they had fled.
She argued that their custodial interrogation was essential to establish the identity of the person/s responsible for helping them in escaping, providing shelter and helping in removing/destroying number plates. The prosecution pleaded with the court to give sufficient time to the investigating officer to conduct investigations for the purpose of collecting evidence.
Defence lawyer Manoj Mane, representing Kad and Chavan, submitted before the court that the police had wrongly invoked the charges of culpable homicide, disappearance of evidence and aiding in crime. He argued that his clients were initially arrested under bailable offences for causing the victim's death due to negligence under the BNS and the Motor Vehicles Act. He pleaded to send his clients to magisterial custody because their detention in custodial remand was not essential.
The court, after hearing both the sides, upheld the prosecution's plea and remanded the two accused in police custody for two days.