By IANS,
New Delhi: You may not get away with just a fine, if found drunk at the wheel. In view of the increasing incidence of accidents on the capital’s roads, a Delhi court has sent a man to jail for 15 days for drunken driving.
Holding Manoj guilty of drinking beyond the permissible limit while driving, Additional Sessions Judge J.R. Aryan said: “The accused stated himself to be around 24-25 years of age. If he was driving on a public place, certainly it was not a first ride.
“How many times he might have driven the vehicle without holding a driving license and without the vehicle covered by valid insurance policy is for the accused to calculate,” said Aryan.
Nearly 65 percent of around 12,000 road accidents in the national capital in 2008 were caused by drunk drivers, according to a report prepared by an NGO.
Aryan upheld the earlier order of a Metropolitan Magistrate who convicted Manoj Feb 1 and sent him to jail for 15 days.
“There is no reason to differ with the view taken by the metropolitan magistrate on the point of sentence, (it) is not a harsh one,” said Aryan, dismissing the appeal of the accused.
Manoj was found driving a motorbike at around 8.30 p.m. Jan 31 on Barakhamba Road. A test through a breath analyzer revealed 311 mg/100 ml ratio of alcohol content in blood. Then he was detained and produced before the metropolitan magistrate.
The magistrate sentenced him to imprisonment for 15 days and fined him Rs.3,500. After paying the fine, he got bail Feb 1.
“The accused did not hold a driving licence to drive a motorbike and there was no third party insurance cover of the motorbike in question. The accused pleaded guilty to all three heads of offence,” said the magistrate while convicting him.
The counsel for the accused filed an appeal before the additional sessions judge arguing that a sentence of 15 days was harsh and unwarranted as Manoj was young and it was his first offence.
“He was returning after attending a party where he had taken liquor,” said the counsel.
But judge Aryan upheld the earlier order and said: “The metropolitan magistrate has already taken a very lenient view in awarding 15 days. The increasing number of accidents is an index to rule out a plea for softer sentence on the ground that it was a first offence.”
The 2009 Delhi Drunken Driving Report prepared by the Campaign Against Drunken Driving (CADD) says the capital loses 1,500 people every year in accidents caused by drunk drivers.
The report added that the highest mortality in such accidents was among those below the age of five and in the 21-34 year age group.
Around 17 percent of government hospital beds are occupied by road accident victims in drunk driving cases.