Hyderabad: Police in Greater Hyderabad booked over 1,700 people for driving under the influence of alcohol on the intervening night of December 31 and January 1.
The cases were booked under the limits of Hyderabad, Cyberabad and Rachakonda Police Commissionerates during the special drive undertaken by the police on New Year’s Eve. Police said the drive was taken up to ensure incident and accident-free New Year celebrations. Top officers led the teams checking motorists for drunk driving at various points.
While 931 cases were booked by the Cyberabad police, around 500 cases were registered in the limits of Hyderabad commissionerate and 387 in the limits of Rachakonda police commissionerate.
Hundreds of teams of Cyberabad police conducted drunken driving tests to prevent road accidents and other untoward incidents.
Cyberabad Police Commissioner V.C. Sajjanar, who supervised the drive at few points, said 931 persons were caught while driving under the influence of alcohol and cases were booked against them. All of them will be produced before the court in due course of time after filing charge sheets.
He said the driving licenses of these people will be seized and sent to the concerned road transport authorities for suspension as per section 19 of the MV Act, 1988. Around 472 persons had alcohol reading more than 100 mg/100 ml of blood and 19 had more than 300 mg and 7 persons had more than 500 mg reading.
Most of the cases were reported in Gachibowli, Narsingi, Madhapur, Raidurgam, Kukatpally, and KPHB areas. The police chief said with the extensive enforcement and traffic and road safety plans by Cyberabad Traffic Police, there were no major road accidents anywhere in Cyberabad.
In view of the long weekend, the special focus on drunk driving will continue in Cyberabad limits to ensure road safety as part of our zero tolerance policy towards drunk driving, he said.
Voicing concern over the growing number of accidents due to drunken driving, the Commissioner had earlier described those driving under the influence of alcohol as “terrorists on roads”.
Hyderabad police also booked around 500 cases against drunk drivers during a special drive on the occasion of New Year celebrations. Traffic police seized many vehicles including bikes and cars and shifted them to police stations. Police said those caught will have to undergo counselling at Traffic Training Institute. They will also be produced before court which may sentence them to imprisonment and impose fines as well.
A special drive against drunken driving was also conducted in Rachakona police commissionerate to prevent road accidents and any untoward incident.
Police Commissioner Mahesh Bhagwat personally supervised the drive at few points. He visited the check posts and interacted with police personnel checking the vehicles.
Police checked vehicles at 24 points for drunken drive and at 40 points for speed control. The police commissioner said while 387 were booked for driving under the influence of alcohol, 247 were booked for over speed. Another 6,049 cases were booked for various violations of the MV Act.
Meanwhile, 16 out of 26 people caught for drunken driving during special drive in Rachakonda on Wednesday have been sent to imprisonment for one to seven days.
