In Ahmedabad, 238 arrested for liquor consumption, drunk driving on New Year’s Eve

Police had deployed over 9,000 personnel across Ahmedabad city including senior officers and personnel from various units

Updated on: Jan 1, 2026, 23:18:53 IST

By Maulik Pathak

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The Ahmedabad Police arrested 238 people for consumption or possession of liquor on New Year’s Eve in the city, where prohibition has been in place along with the rest of Gujarat for decades, the city police said in a statement on Thursday.

Revellers celebrate the New Year at CG Road in Ahmedabad on January 1 (ANI)

The statement said the city police registered 246 liquor-related cases, including 123 cases for consumption of liquor (123 arrested), 54 for possession of Indian-Made Foreign Liquor (54 arrested), and 69 cases for drunk driving under the Motor Vehicles Act (61 arrested), said officials.

Gujarat is a dry state under the Gujarat Prohibition Act, 1949, which prohibits the manufacture, sale, purchase, possession, transport, and consumption of alcohol. Violations under the law are punishable with a maximum of 10 years in jail.

Certain categories of residents and visitors are allowed to obtain permits for limited consumption. Authorised hotels may sell liquor to permit holders for private consumption. Public consumption is prohibited.

A limited exception to the prohibition also exists in GIFT City for business purposes.

The police statement said 107 vehicles were also seized for other violations such as missing registration or driving licences.

It said 9,040 personnel, including five joint or additional commissioners of police, were posted throughout the city. The city police also deployed nine Quick Response Teams, 443 breath analysers, 39 speed gun cameras, 34 cranes, and 123 emergency response vehicles, among others.

Large crowds gathered at Sabarmati Riverfront, Sardar Patel Ring Road, CG Road in Navrangpura, SG Highway, Sindhu Bhavan Road and other areas to celebrate.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Maulik Pathak
He is an Ahmedabad-based journalist with more than two decades of experience. His career spans business journalism and general news, with reporting across politics, crime, governance, public policy, business, industry, infrastructure, energy, ports, aviation, the environment, wildlife and social issues. He began his career in feature writing before moving into business journalism, reporting on companies and sectors including energy, infrastructure, pharmaceuticals, automobiles and real estate. Over the years, his work expanded to politics, courts, crime, public policy, civic affairs, the environment and wildlife. His reporting has taken him from government offices and courtrooms to factory floors, ports, forests and remote villages, covering stories that range from industrial investments and financial markets to elections, conservation and issues affecting everyday life. While many assignments demand the pace of the daily news cycle, others require sustained reporting over months and years to follow developments beyond the headlines. He started his journalism career with the Asian Age in Ahmedabad in 2002 as a feature writer and sub-editor. Since 2022, he has been working with Hindustan Times. Earlier, he worked with Business Standard, DNA, The Economic Times, Mint and The Times of India. His longest stint was with Mint, where he spent more than eight years reporting across multiple beats. During his career, he has worked in both reporting and editing roles, contributing to page planning, local editions and special editorial projects as newsrooms evolved from print-first operations to digital publishing. Early in his career, he also worked on media and documentary projects with an NGO and as a copywriter at a communications agency before returning to journalism. Away from work, he sometimes makes time for a pair of binoculars, table tennis, cinema and the occasional poem.Read More

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