Suspension of two police personnel caught drunk while on night duty in Dehradun and the recent ghastly case of a road rage killing a person in the Patelnagar area of the city when juxtaposed paint a grim picture of the vulnerability of the commuters and pedestrians during the night hours.
Strangely enough, while the suspension was triggered by the cops found drunk the investigation into the road rage incident revealed that both the person who was killed and the accused were drunk. Observers say that when drunk driving happens mostly during the night hours the cops, deployed on the road to stop them, themselves being caught drunk are scary for both the commuters and the pedestrians.
Dehradun SSP Nivedita Kukreti was out on inspection at police lines on Sunday night when she found two constables who drive the police cars drunk. The suspension order was issued the following day. However, this is not the first case of cops on duty found drunk. “Most of the times, such cops get away with their misdeeds because others who see their colleagues in inebriated condition do not care to inform their seniors. This is something the top police brass should take note of,” said police department insiders.
The common people say that instances of policemen doing duty while drunk are frequent, particularly during the wintry nights. “We come across such cases nearly daily on the city roads around this time. Some mechanism must be put into place to ensure that cops while on duty do not booze,” said a Raipur resident. Another from Dalanwala said that police patrolling during the night hours rarely happen. “When we are caught in road rage incidents it is difficult to contact police as they are nowhere in the vicinity of the incident sites,” he added.
In perhaps the first road rage- related murder in Dehradun, Bhupesh Mahar was stabbed to death by one Sumit Rathore who plunged a screw driver into the victim’s chest after the car driven by the victim rammed the rear of the car of the accused in Patelnagar area on Sunday night. Rathore was later arrested and sent to Suddhowala jail.