Police arrest drunk driver after 1-km chase

A 52-year-old taxi driver allegedly driving drunk and without a licence led the Mumbai traffic police on a kilometre-long chase in Dharavi before they arrested him on Thursday.

Earlier, motorists saw him driving dangerously and hitting a couple of vehicles and alerted the traffic police.

According to the police, the incident took place around 10.30am. Traffic policemen from Mahim were alerted about a driver driving rashly on LBS road. The driver, said motorists, hit a couple of vehicles.

Head constable Subhash Bhosle from the Mahim traffic police division tried to stop the taxi, but the driver paid no heed. Bhosle then managed to get a patrol vehicle and chased the taxi. According to the police, the driver was finally nabbed in PMGP colony in Dharavi. The accused, identified as Mohammad Satar Hussain Shaikh. He was arrested and subjected to a medical test. The breath alyser showed that he had 295.7mg of alcohol per 100ml blood in his body, police said. Shaikh did no have a licence either. The tax he was driving was not his; he had borrowed it, police said.

The police have contacted the owner and will be ask him why he handed over his taxi’s keys to Shaikh despite knowing he was drunk.

Shaikh was produced before a magistrate court and remanded in judicial custody.