Holi crackdown in Pune: 676 motorists booked for drunk driving, over 250 vehicles seized

PUNE: A total of 676 motorists were nabbed in Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad for driving under the influence of alcohol on the occasion of Holi.

The Pune city police and the Pimpri Chinchwad police conducted a special drive on Tuesday to intercept drunk drivers. Deputy commissioner of police (traffic), Pimpri Chinchwad, Vivek Patil, told TOI, "We conducted a daylong drive in Pimpri Chinchwad and caught 221 drunk drivers. Additionally, we fined 1,100 motorists for triple-seat riding."

Additional commissioner of police, Pune, Manoj Patil said, "We started our drive on Tuesday morning and it continued till 2am on Wednesday. Our teams nabbed 455 drunk drivers in Pune city."

Deputy commissioner of police (traffic), Pune, Himmat Jadhav said, "We seized 254 vehicles, including four-wheelers and two-wheelers, because all occupants or riders were drunk. We could not allow them to drive or ride motor vehicles in such a condition."

The Pune city traffic police organised a counselling session at the Yerawada traffic police headquarters for those caught driving under the influence of liquor.

Patil said, "We have decided to send all drunk driving cases to the court for further legal action. Moreover, we will impound the driving licence of those involved in drunk driving and request the Regional Transport Office (RTO) to cancel them."

He said in the first two months of this year, the traffic police nabbed 2,550 motorists for drunk driving. "We imposed a fine of Rs28.17 lakh on motorists for driving under the influence of liquor on Tuesday. We caught 6,700 motorists last year for drunk driving," he said.

Patil said the police were conducting a study to identify the repeat offenders. Strict legal action would be taken against them, he said.

"We have introduced a surprise element in our action against drunk drivers. We conduct checks on select roads in the morning hours, while evening naka bandi operations' locations are frequently changed to catch more offenders. We caught drunk drivers even in the morning hours of late, which was not the case earlier," Patil said.

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