On drunk driving, Mumbai shows the tough way: six get 30 days in prison

According to the Motor Vehicles Act, the permissible limit is 30 mg per 100 ml of blood — detected in a test by a breath analyser.

In a three-hour-long drive that began at 11 pm on Christmas, they booked 207 persons for rash and drunk driving in various parts of the city. Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Vijay Kamble said, “Some of those booked are executives with top jobs. They draw handsome salaries, drive cars like Pajero and Mercedes Benz. One of them is a doctor.”

Of the 207 booked, 192 offenders were in the age group of 20 to 40 years. A total of 153 defendants appeared in court on Wednesday, of whom 59 were convicted and sentenced to various prison terms — upto 30 days, the police said.

“Of the six who were convicted to simple imprisonment of up to 30 days, four were fined Rs 5 and the other two Re 1 each,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Harish Baijal. The police argued in the court that instead of heavier fines, a longer period of imprisonment would go a long way in working as a deterrent for other motorists.

“We have booked 2,555 persons for drunk driving in the past six months and suspended 2,695 licenses. The fines collected from drunk drivers since January 1 this year crossed the Rs 2 crore mark. Yet the problem continues. That is why we argued before the court that a token fine of Re 1 be taken and a harsher prison term be handed out to the offenders. For the first time, a fine of Re 1 each was collected from five people. Of them, two were sent to jail for 30 days and three for 15 days each,” said Baijal.

“We have noticed a slight dip in the number of fatal and serious accidents after we started the drive in June this year but it would be too early to say that numbers have dropped because of the drive solely,” said Kamble.