PANJIM: Goa Police penalized 311 drunken revelers, most of them youngsters, on New Year’s Eve for drunk driving. The department is now preparing case details to send these cases to the court with a plea to send these errant drunken drivers to jail. Of the total, 119 cases were reported in the north while 192 cases were in the South district.
“We are scrutinizing the cases of drunken driving to be sent to the court. We will plead the court to award the violators imprisonment,” Director General of Police Muktesh Chander told Herald.
The department had warned that such cases would be dealt with strictly and drunken drivers will be put behind the bars. The last calendar year saw at least 5785 persons caught driving vehicles in drunken state, some were let off with a fine while others were imprisoned till the rising of the court or jailed ranging from one to 10 days.
On the New Year eve, Chander had issued a circular to in-charges of all the police stations and the traffic circles as well to ensure effective prosecution of drunken drivers apart from traffic regulation. Chander had also asked the control rooms to collect the prosecution figures for drunken driving at the police station and traffic unit level, for both the districts and submit to him on January 1, 2019.
However, despite attempts to ensure no fatalities, the State witnessed a fatal accident on the Ponda bypass road when a truck driver crushed a pedestrian under its wheels. The DGP said that the driver was arrested.
Panim Police booked 13 cases and made three arrests.
