Jail term almost certain for drunk drivers in Hyderabad

HYDERABAD: If you are caught driving under the influence of alcohol, be prepared to cool your heels in the cooler. Gone are the days when motorists could simply pay a fine and get away with drunken driving offences, now imprisonment is almost a certainty.
A local court on Wednesday sent a businessman to jail for 14 days. Last Friday night, Ritesh Singh (name changed), a bangle store owner from Asifnagar, was caught by the Sultan Bazar traffic police while riding a bike in an inebriated condition near Osmania Medical College.His blood alcohol content (BAC) was 173mg/100ml while the permissible limit is 30mg/100ml. Ritesh’s vehicle was seized and after a counselling session at the Traffic Training Institute (TTI), he was produced before the III metropolitan magistrate court at Errum Manzil on Wednesday.
It was Ritesh’s second such offence after being caught on May 24 with a BAC of 185mg/100ml. He was then let off by the court with a fine of Rs 3,100. But on Wednesday, the magistrate took the repeat offence factor into account and sentenced him to 14 days in jail along with Rs 4,100 fine. On the same day, the court also sentenced first-time offender Sanjay, an auto driver who was found to have a BAC level of 315mg/100ml, to a week in jail as he was putting the life of his passengers in risk as well.
During the last weekend, the traffic police booked 192 persons for drunken driving and 100 of them (52%) were sentenced to imprisonment. Apart from Ritesh and Sanjay, one person was sent to jail for two days, 18 others for a day and 79 offenders for imprisonment till the court rises, meaning till 5 pm the same day. Imprisonment till the court rises is being used as a deterrent for even first-time offenders who are either heavily drunk or pick up fights with the traffic cops when they are caught.
According to Hyderabad additional CP (Traffic) Jitender, awareness among motorists has increased in recent times due to regular checks by the police. “The awareness among the educated class has increased drastically. Now, most of the offenders are blue-collar employees or small-time businessmen,” Jitender said.
Since 2011, the city police has booked 33,288 persons in drunken driving cases and 2,461 of these were sent to jail. Of the 2,461 persons imprisoned since 2011, 1,221 (49.6%) persons were imprisoned in 2014. “We will soon integrate our data on drunken driving cases with the RTA database so that driving licences of repeat offenders get cancelled. It will also be added with the Cyberabad police data and linked to CCTNS, which means offenders will not be able to get police clearance for purposes like passport verification, and international driving licence and visa will become impossible,” Jitender added.
High on the streets
Of the 7,828 offenders who were caught for drunken driving this year, blue-collar employees (2,578) formed a major chunk, followed by private employees (2,323), businessmen (1,093), drivers (624), students (350), software engineers (138), government employees, including police personnel (90), advocates (26), doctors (30) and ex-servicemen (four). Majority of the offenders were in the 21-40 year age group. Since 2011, 26 women were caught in such cases, of which nine were nabbed this year.