The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Thank God, it's not Saturday

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Apr 27, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Thank God, it's not Saturday

Shonali Muthalaly

You could end up in a hospital or police station if you are found driving

CHENNAI: : Nowadays, your Saturday night might just start at a pub and end at a police station, or general hospital, even if you do not drink. Or drive.

Last Saturday, revellers at a crammed pub in a prominent city hotel fell silent as a group of policemen walked in, although it was not yet midnight — the stipulated closing time. "The music stopped, and everyone was asked to leave," says Dilip, who says he was one of the "150 people there that night. And that's a conservative estimate."

Outside, at the exit gate of the hotel, another group of policemen waited, stopping people as they left, and asking them to get out of their cars. "They then made each of us blow in their faces," says Madan, who adds that some of the people picked up that night had alcohol intakes well below permissible limits. "One guy, for example, had had a single drink at 6 p.m.. By the time they picked him up it was midnight. But he was sent to the police station anyway because they smelt it on his breath," adds Madan.

"They made us give them the car keys, leave our cars on the road, get into their jeeps and then took us to Thousandlights police station," says Dilip, adding that one of his fellow passengers in the jeep had been picked up, "even though he had not drunk a thing" because, "he happened to have a few bottles of beer in the car." Once they reached the station, they were all told that they would be taken to the Government General Hospital for blood tests to ascertain the amount of alcohol in their blood.

More on weekends

This has been happening more often on weekends. Last Saturday also saw a rash of police officers on the East Coast road stopping people as early as 9.30 p.m. "They stopped us. And then made everyone — including the girls — get out of the car and cross the road to explain who we were, where we were going and why to one of the senior police officers, even though nobody had been drinking, and we were well within the speed limit," says Maya, who was on her way to a friend's birthday party that night.

And sometimes, as Rahul found out, they don't wait for answers. On his way back from an office party, he was accused of being drunk, and then made to drive — himself — to the Royapettah Hospital for a blood test.

"No forced tests"

"We cannot forcibly draw blood from anyone," says an official at the Government Royapettah Hospital, who states that his hospital, "along with the Kilpauk Medical College Hospital, The General Hospital and the Saidapet Hospital" get cases like this every Saturday night. "Anyway, we don't really need to go by a blood test. We can check if a person is drunk by an examination of his gait, coherence and breath."

Even if a blood sample is taken, he says "there is only one lab in the city — the Forensic Lab — which can process the results. And they take a week.'

(All names have been changed on request.)

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