Mumbai: Woman, 25, held for drink driving after women cops are posted at checkpoints

Usama Vikamse, 25, was stopped in Byculla just after midnight on Saturday and found to be driving her Honda under the influence of alcohol, said the police.

A day after HT reported that only one woman had been arrested for drunk driving in Mumbai in the first five months of 2015, the traffic police arrested another woman for driving under the influence.

Usama Vikamse, 25, was stopped in Byculla just after midnight on Saturday and found to be driving her Honda under the influence of alcohol, said the police. Vikamse, a Parel resident, is the first woman to have been arrested for drink driving since Tuesday, and only the third this year. On Tuesday, Chembur resident and high court advocate Janhavi Gadkar, 35, rammed her Audi into a taxi on the Eastern Freeway, killing two people.

Milind Bharambe, joint commissioner of police, confirmed that Vikamse was arrested at a checkpoint near Byculla zoo by women constables posted specifically to crack down on women who drive drunk.

“Vikamse was intercepted by our women constables around midnight. She was given a breathanalyser test and the results were positive. She was booked for driving under the influence of alcohol and her license was impounded,” said an inspector from the Byculla traffic division.

Bharambe had said that more women constables will be posted at anti-drink driving checkpoints to ensure that women drivers are also checked.

HT spoke to male constables who admitted they have in the past “let women drivers go if they had consumed alcohol in small amounts” as they were not comfortable giving them breathalyser tests or smelling their breath for alcohol.

Gadkar, 35, who was driving her Audi Q3 down the wrong side of the Eastern Freeway, crashed into an oncoming taxi, killing two people and injuring four others early on Tuesday. Her blood report showed she had 200 mg of alcohol per 100 ml of blood, which is more than six times the permissible limit.