Kolkata: “Feel bad, but personal problems cannot be an excuse for drink-and-drive,” cops told a mid-fifties Railway employee before arresting him on Diamond Harbour Road.
The officers patiently heard him out for around 30 minutes as he spoke about the loneliness and personal distress that he said had driven him towards alcohol.
As officers began preparing to transfer him to Behala police station, the biker broke down and sought leniency, explaining “why” he had “turned alcoholic”. He told the intercepting traffic sergeant that he was an Indian Railways employee whose wife had recently left him. His daughter, he said, had completed her engineering degree, secured a job and settled elsewhere. Traffic police officials said that while personnel routinely listen to citizens during enforcement stops, personal hardship cannot mitigate the public safety threat posed by drunk driving.
They also counselled him about the legal and physical dangers of riding while drunk. Riding a two-wheeler under the influence puts both the rider and other road users at serious risk of injury or death. After completing the breathalyzer documentation, police formally took the suspect into custody and transferred him to Behala police station. A case was registered under relevant sections of the Motor Vehicles Act governing drunken driving.