Drink-driving doc says he wanted to avoid arrest

Dr Vivek Malik, the 42-year-old doctor who was arrested by the Samta Nagar police on Friday night, for allegedly driving under the influence of alcohol, abducting a constable and not letting him perform his duties, told the police that he had just been trying to evade arrest and embarassment.

Dr Vivek Malik, the 42-year-old doctor who was arrested by the Samta Nagar police on Friday night, for allegedly driving under the influence of alcohol, abducting a constable and not letting him perform his duties, told the police that he had just been trying to evade arrest and embarassment.

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Malik, an Andheri resident, was remanded in police custody till Tuesday after being produced before a metropolitan court on Saturday afternoon.

“Malik has said that he did not intend to abduct the constable. He was simply embarrassed about being caught driving under the influence of alcohol and the arrest/fine that would follow. Even when the constable jumped into the backseat of his car, he said he presumed that he would convince the constable to let him go,” said N Amugade, senior police inspector of Jogeshwari police station.

Malik further told the police that he had not anticipated the reaction of other policemen that eventually got him caught. His blood report, ascertaining alcohol content, is awaited.

The police said that they have recorded statements of Malik’s woman friend, who was accompanying him in his Indigo car at the time of the incident. Besides, statements of the constable and eyewitnesses present at the spot have also been recorded.

According to the police, Malik, after finishing dinner with his friend on Friday night, was driving her home when he crashed his car into a vehicle ahead of him on the Western Express Highway. It was a minor collision and no one was injured.