Caught again for driving drunk? It’s 2 yrs in jail

A fine of Rs 5,000 also possible, e-challan machines store two-year data on offenders

Those caught driving under the influence in the city for the second time face a jail term of up to 2 years or a fine of Rs 5,000 or both.

The Delhi Traffic Police have intensified its efforts to check drink driving and bring to task repeat offenders with the help of their latest gadget — the e-challan machines.

The e-challan machines will be with the police teams patrolling the New Delhi district, to begin with. The machines have the capacity to store data of the past two years, and those caught repeating the offence of drink driving will be brought to task.

"Database of over 50,000 cases of drink driving offenders has been loaded on these machines. It has all details of the offender, including driving licence number, vehicle number, name and age. When an officer swipes the driving licence of an offender in the machine, it will show the history. If the offender is found to have been challaned for drink driving on a previous occasion, he or she will be punished accordingly," a senior officer said.

Those repeating the offence of drink driving within three years will face the more rigorous punishment.

"A total of 6,375 people have been imprisoned till November 30 this year for drink driving. However, we did not have the machinery to check the history of offences of the violator. Hence the maximum jail term they faced was 30 days. But now we have the e-challan machines, which will show if the offender has been booked for drink driving earlier. Enhanced punishment of up to 2 years imprisonment can be handed out. Hopefully, this will deter people from driving drunk," Joint Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Satyendra Garg said.

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