On the night of May 20, Ashpaq Makandar, a close aide of NCP MLA Sunil Tingre, retweeted the legislator’s post expressing grief over an accident, in which two software engineers were killed after being hit by a speeding Porsche Taycan Turbo that was allegedly driven by a minor in Pune. But just 36 hours before that post, Makandar had allegedly been a key player in a conspiracy to tamper with evidence in this very case.

Newslaundry has now seen riveting details of the 900-page chargesheet, filed by the Pune Police on July 25, which alleges an attempt to blindfold the probe by the rich and mighty. 

These include how blood samples were switched at the state-run Sassoon Hospital to ensure there was no incriminating evidence against the minor accused. For example, how instead of blood samples of the accused minor driver, the sample taken from his mother was given for analysis. 

These also feature WhatsApp chats between the accused, suggesting plans to blame the deceased for the accident, and to frame a fourth person, an adult driver who was allegedly in the car but not behind the wheels at the time of the accident. Referring to this driver, the mother of the accused minor driver, for example, wrote, “I have a point, whether who was driving the car is a secondary issue and yet to be proved, but the driver was there in the car...that’s confirmed than (sic) isn’t it negligence on the driver’s end.”