Family left on the street after police seize car

Man held for drunken driving says police didn’t allow him to take house keys left in the car

It was a night of high drama in front of the Banashankari traffic police station after a man, caught for drunken driving, was made to wait for about three hours — until nearly 1 a.m. on Sunday — even as his family was left stranded outside their house in Padmanabhanagar.

All this because the keys of his house was locked up inside the vehicle seized by the police.

The man who identified himself as Mohan, an employee of a private firm, was allegedly caught for drunken driving near Banashankari traffic police station around 10 p.m. on Saturday.

Speaking to reporters in front of the police station, he said: “I was caught and I accept my mistake. But my car, which was immediately driven into the police station premises and seized by the police, had my house keys along with cash inside. Even as I tried to tell the inspector that I needed the keys kept inside my car, he rolled up the windows of his jeep and went away. My wife and children are waiting in front of the house and we have no keys to go inside.”

Mohan said that the station personnel were not willing to let him anywhere near his seized vehicle even to retrieve his keys without the inspector’s permission.

He also claimed that he had tried calling the inspector numerous times, but the phone had been switched off.

Even as he waited for the inspector to return, his family continued to wait outside the house.

However, after 12.30 a.m., when the inspector returned to the police station, a verbal duel ensued between the inspector and Mohan.

The inspector stated that police could not be blamed as Mohan had firstly been caught for driving after consuming alcohol above the permissible limits.

The inspector claimed that his phone had been switched off and the battery had drained. As the two argued, a crowd gathered at the police station to witness the heated arguments.

The inspector, however, later relented and allowed Mohan to retrieve the keys to the house along with his other belongings.

By the time, Mohan could leave the police station with the keys, it was well past 1 a.m.