NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday granted bail to Ashpak Makandar, one of the accused in the alleged blood sample tampering case linked to the 2024 Pune Porsche crash that killed two young software engineers. A Bench comprising Justices BV Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan allowed the plea on the ground of parity, observing that co-accused facing similar allegations had already been granted bail, as reported by Bar and Bench. During the hearing, the Court asked how long Makandar had been in custody. Senior Advocate Siddharth Agarwal, appearing for Makandar, told the Bench that he had spent 20 months in jail. “We will grant bail on the ground of parity.
Leave granted,” the Court said. The Bench directed that Makandar be released on bail in terms of its earlier order in SLP (Crl.) No. 1270 of 2026, passed in the case of co-accused Amar Santosh Gaikwad, who was also accused of acting as a middleman in the alleged conspiracy. The case stems from the fatal Porsche crash that took place around 2:30 am on May 19, 2024, in Pune’s Kalyani Nagar area. A Porsche car, allegedly driven by a juvenile in an inebriated state, rammed into a motorcycle, killing Aneesh Awadhiya (24) and Ashwini Koshta (24), both software engineers from Madhya Pradesh.
According to the prosecution, the juvenile’s father, businessman Vishal Agarwal, along with his wife and associates, allegedly conspired with doctors and staff at Sassoon General Hospital to manipulate blood test reports. Investigators alleged that blood samples were swapped to eliminate evidence of alcohol consumption, and that Rs 3 lakh was paid to hospital staff through intermediaries. Makandar was among those accused of acting as a middleman in facilitating the alleged tampering. Earlier this month, the Supreme Court granted bail to three other accused — Ashish Mittal, Amar Santosh Gaikwad, and Aditya Sood — noting that they had spent around 18 months in jail. The Court had observed that continued incarceration would cause undue prejudice, while cautioning that any breach of bail conditions imposed by the trial court could lead to cancellation of bail.
