Gurugram, Jun 9 (PTI): After a former army officer filed a complaint accusing a Gurugram traffic police team of misbehaving with him and his family at a drunk-driving checkpoint here, authorities on Tuesday said preliminary investigation into the matter has not revealed any misconduct or misbehavior on part of traffic personnel.
Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Traffic, Prateek Gehlot said an inquiry is being conducted under the supervision of Assistant Commissioner of Police (Traffic Headquarters and Highway) Satpal Yadav over allegations that traffic personnel misbehaved with a driver and issued an incorrect challan around midnight on June 6. Investigation so far revealed no evidence indicating any form of misconduct or misbehavior by Gurugram Traffic Police officers toward the vehicle driver or his family members, Gehlot said.
“The footage from a body-worn camera of a traffic zonal officer during the alcohol-checking operation was reviewed. Based on this, it was found that the driver was issued a challan under provisions of the Motor Vehicles Act because the alcohol sensor reading was 91. Further, no evidence was found indicating any form of misconduct or misbehavior by Gurugram Traffic Police,” Gehlot added.
During a press conference, the DCP said the Gurugram police commissioner has already prepared a standard operating procedure (SOP) for alcohol checks. In compliance with the SOP, alcohol-checking drives are conducted every week on roads where incidents of excessive drinking and driving are more common, specifically on Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays from 10:00pm to 1:00 am.
During these checking drives, the zonal officer must wear a body-worn camera in accordance with the SOP. “This ensures transparency in challan process and records every activity during the checking procedure. Additionally, a new pipe/mouth-piece is used on the alcohol sensor device for every individual driver tested,” the DCP said.
“The matter is being further investigated by the Assistant Commissioner of Police (Traffic East) Manjeet Singh”, he added.
A retired army officer has filed a complaint, accusing traffic policemen of misbehaving with him and his family during a weekend drunk-driving check, police said on Tuesday.
Alleging that traffic personnel kept him and his family standing on the road for approximately an hour and a half at midnight, he claimed the situation worsened when, despite proving innocence in a re-test, police refused to let the family leave.
He sent a written complaint to the police commissioner, demanding an impartial investigation into the harassment case, police sources said, adding that the investigation has been assigned to ACP (Traffic East).
According to the complaint, Major (retd) Hemendra Singh said he was injured in a terrorist encounter in Jammu and Kashmir and his team killed three terrorists. He retired in 2007 on the grounds of disability and now holds a senior corporate position.
On the night of June 6, he, along with his wife and two daughters, was returning to their society after dinner on Cyber City Golf Course Road when a police team stopped them.
During the inspection, a police officer allegedly placed the breathalyser — alcohol-checking device — he had previously used on another driver directly into the major’s mouth without changing the straw or nozzle.
The initial reading was 91 mg/100 ml, well above permissible limit. Immediately, the traffic officer became abusive and started issuing a challan, he added.
He alleged that upon demanding a fair re-test with a new straw, the officer on duty became enraged and acted high-handedly.
“However, when re-pressurised and re-tested twice with a new nozzle, the truth came out. Both times, the alcohol reading was only 13 mg/100 ml, which was completely within the legally normal and safe limit,” Major Singh said in his complaint.
Following this, he called 112 and reported the police officers’ actions, Singh said, adding that upon learning of this, the traffic police officers conducting the check fled the scene with their vehicle. PTI COR ARB ARB
(This story is published as part of the auto-generated syndicate wire feed. No editing has been done in the headline or the body by ABP Live.)
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