HYDERABAD: For at least the previous 5 years, cops in Hyderabad liked to play the finger-wagging college grasp with individuals caught driving their car or bike in an drunk state. The cops would seize the car and return it solely after the owner went to court and a counselling session. This would take at least a number of days if no more.
The counselling classes stopped in a few police commissionerates after the pandemic struck however the seizing of autos continued. No wonder then that the three police commissionerates within the city are actually left with the duty of rapidly returning greater than 6,000 autos after the Telangana high court mentioned that the police didn’t have the power to make such seizures.
The frequency with which vehicles have been seized may be gauged from the truth that in 2021 alone, the Hyderabad police commissionerate seized 16,500 autos. This successfully means greater than 45 vehicles have been seized day by day and that too in only one police district. The cops additionally filed cost sheets in 7,269 instances. A senior police officer informed STOI, “The order has to be implemented and it will be done.”
Did the seizures assist in bringing down the number of drunk driving cases in Telangana? The newest National Crime Records Bureau knowledge exhibits that state noticed 1,328 accidents brought on by drunk drivers in 2020 – the best within the nation. As many as 343 individuals died in these accidents, which is the second highest within the nation after Uttar Pradesh.
On Saturday, officers at the Hyderabad and Cyberabad commissionerates began returning vehicles, in the future after the high court order was reported. Sources, nevertheless, mentioned the officers are additionally looking for authorized opinion on the court’s order.
The most number of vehicles have been seized in Trimulgherry and Malakpet in Hyderabad. In Cyberabad commissionerate limits, Kukatpally, Madhapur and Rajendranagar noticed most seizures.
The high court, whereas listening to a clutch of petitions challenging the seizures, mentioned that the police can’t seize vehicles. They ought to both hand the car over to a co-passenger who has not had alcohol or contact an individual, who is understood to the drunk driver. A motorist whose blood alcohol count is above 30 mg/100 ml is treated as driving drunk.
