Drunken Brawls Third Highest Police Emergency On 112 In Dry Gujarat

Gandhinagar: In dry Gujarat, after assault and disputes, drunken brawls are the third highest emergency where cops have had to intervene. In fact, police have had to intervene more often to resolve drunken brawls than in road accidents, thefts, physical assault on women, domestic violence and the like.

An analysis by the state home department of emergencies responded to after introduction of the emergency response support system (ERSS) through the unified helpline 112, also shows that the highest number of emergencies received by the police are between 6 pm and 11 pm and on Sundays followed by Saturdays.

In all, 112 responded to 6.38 lakh police emergencies between Sept 2025 and April 2026. Of these, assault cases account for 18.30%, disputes (13.21%) while drunken brawls constituted 11.10%. Back of the envelope calculation put this figure at 70,000 drunken clashes.

Dial 112 Jan Rakshak services were launched across Gujarat on September 1, 2025, integrating six services— police, fire, medical, disaster, women helpline, and child helpline. According to a presentation by the state home department, 7.19 lakh emergencies were received between September 1, 2025 and April 30, 2026, of which 6.38 lakh were police-related emergencies.

According to data compiled by the state home department, instances of drunken brawls where police have had to intervene are much more than other crises like road accidents, thefts, traffic jams, domestic violence, women in distress, fires, damage to property and others.

Gujarat DGP KLN Rao told TOI, “This trend shows that people are aware of the 112 helpline and also know about the law, they call police.”

The presentation meanwhile said that following the rollout of the 112 Jan Rakshak service, the response time of the police improved from 17 minutes 21 seconds in September 2025 to 12 minutes in April 2026, an improvement of 5 minutes.

Earlier this month, a 53-year-old deputy mamlatdar, Mehul Bhatt, was arrested for creating a drunken ruckus in the Subhashnagar area of Bhavnagar, marking his second arrest for similar behavior.

In October last year, a 19-year-old youth was arrested after he clashed with police during a raid on a high-profile held to celebrate his businessman father’s birthday. A video of the incident went viral, where the youth argued vehemently with cops, and tried to snatch the phone of a police official before being restrained.

Last year in September, a police constable in Vadodara was arrested after he allegedly used foul language and abused citizens in a state of intoxication. He was taken to the police station after locals complained of his unruly behaviour in public.

In February this year, residents of a village in north Gujarat’s Mehsana district contributed to making a cage to lock up drunkards who create a nuisance in the village.