MUMBAI: A magistrate court recently acquitted a Colaba resident booked in 2019 for drunken driving after the police admitted that they had neither obtained his blood sample nor recorded the statement of any other person at the spot.
“To sum up the glaring features emanating from the evidence on record, it is crystal clear that there is no evidence on record to conclude that the accused drove the vehicle under influence of alcohol at the relevant time, therefore, by mere stretch of imagination it cannot be concluded that way. The prosecution has miserably failed to prove guilt of the accused,” the court said.
Niraj Yadav was booked at a nakabandi near Badhwar Park, Cuffe Parade, at 2.30 am on January 1, 2019, after a breath-analyser showed alcohol.
Yadav was booked under Section 185 of the Motor Vehicles Act, which prescribes a maximum sentence of six months for anyone found guilty of driving drunk or under the influence of drugs. Under the section, to qualify as “drunken driving” alcohol exceeding 30 mg per 100 ml of blood has to be detected in a breath-analyzer test. Yadav pleaded not guilty.
The prosecution examined only one witness, the police official who booked Yadav.
The court said the breath-analyzer report was not proved. “One more important point is that there are no details of the alleged vehicle possessed by the accused at the relevant time … . In the background, except the bare words of this sole witness, there is no even other corroboration on record to support the prosecution story,” the court said.
