With a sharp rise in the number of cases concerning drunk driving, the Cyberabad police said they have started taking stringent legal action against persons who indulge in driving under the influence of alcohol and are involved in fatal road accidents.
“We would book such people under Section 304 part II (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of the Indian Penal Code for which the punishment involves imprisonment up to 10 years,” Commissioner of Police V.C. Sajjanar said on Friday.
He said that the standard operating procedure has been put in place to deal with such cases and to ensure strict punishment to the ‘wrongdoers’.
ADVERTISEMENT
“Every single road accident case is monitored by the Road Traffic Accident Monitoring Cell (RTAM) and people involved in the accidents are subjected to blood alcohol concentration tests without fail to identify the persons driving under the influence of alcohol,” the Commissioner said, adding that no one can escape the legal action after committing any road accident under the influence of alcohol.
The managements of pubs, which knowingly allow their customers in drunken state to drive the vehicles, will also be dealt under the relevant provisions of law and prosecuted, he said.
Also, special teams will work continuously to apprehend the people involved in road accidents and flee the scene, Mr. Sajjanar said, and added that stringent action will be taken against such people for ‘causing disappearance of evidence’, and not helping the injured persons for medical care.
ADVERTISEMENT
Those who do not cooperate for the BAC test will be booked under Section 205 (Presumption of unfitness to drive) of the Motor Vehicles Act, which presumes the drunkenness of such people, the IPS officer of 1996 batch said.
“In recent drunk driving accidents in Madhapur and Gachibowli, the accused will be dealt with stringent enforcement of all available provisions of law,” the Commissioner added.