Porsche crash case: SC confirms Shivani Agarwal’s bail

SC confirmed ad-interim bail granted to Shivani Agarwal, who had been in judicial custody for over ten months for allegedly switching the blood samples of her minor involved in Pune Porsche crash case

Pune: The Supreme Court on Thursday confirmed the ad-interim bail granted on April 22 to Shivani Agarwal, who had been in judicial custody for over ten months for allegedly switching the blood samples of her 17-year-old son involved in the Pune Porsche crash case.

SC confirmed ad-interim bail granted to Shivani Agarwal, who had been in judicial custody for over ten months for allegedly switching the blood samples of her minor involved in Pune Porsche crash case. (HT FILE)

The bench of Justice BR Gavai and Justice Augustine George Masih held that the requirement to provide written grounds of arrest applies to all offences under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), and not just under special laws such as the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) or the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).

The court emphasised failure to furnish written grounds of arrest, in a language understood by the arrestee, renders both the arrest and subsequent remand illegal. “The requirement of informing the arrested person of the grounds of arrest under Article 22(1) of the Constitution is not a mere formality but a mandatory constitutional safeguard. If a person is not informed of the grounds of arrest as soon as may be, it amounts to a violation of fundamental rights under Article 21, rendering the arrest illegal,” the bench observed.

The ruling came during the hearing of Criminal Appeals Number 2189 and 2190 of 2025, where the appellants contended they were not informed of the grounds of arrest in writing, in violation of Article 22(1) and Section 50 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (now Section 47 of BNSS, 2023). The court clarified that the prosecution may seek remand or custody only after supplying the written grounds of arrest to the accused before the magistrate.

Agarwal’s bail relates to the May 19, 2024, Pune incident in which her minor son, while driving his father’s Porsche car, allegedly ran over and killed two IT professionals — Aneesh Awadhiya and Ashwini Koshta. She was arrested for allegedly tampering with her son’s blood samples.

Senior advocate Vikram Chaudhari, along with advocates Dhvani Shah, Rishi Sehgal, and Nikhil Jain, and advocate-on-record (AOR) Muskaan Khurana, appeared for Agarwal.