The youth, a student in Anna University, snatched the breath analyser from a policeman after the equipment showed that he was drunk. He then threw it onto the back seat of his car and sped away.  

The incident happened near Greenways Road junction around 9 pm on Saturday, where the man was stopped by the police during a drunken driving check. The head constable Balan was engaged in checking while the inspector and the sub-inspector were also present at the spot.

 

Balan went to the car driver waiting to be checked. The  constable asked the student to down the window to check him for drunken driving.

 

The driver, identified as D Booshan (20) of Drowpathy Amman Koil Second Street in Velachery, said he was not drunk and refused to blow into the machine. Balan told him that the test would prove if he was drunken or not. 

“The constable was sure that the driver was drunk. As usual, the policeman had asked him from where he was coming. When he told that he was coming from Santhome, the constable could smell alcohol and insisted him to blow into the machine,” noted a senior officer.

 

He then took out the breath analyser and placed a straw asking Booshan to blow. The man reluctantly blowed into the machine, and it showed that he was drunk. Panicking, he snatched the equipment from the policeman and threw it onto the back seat before speeding away.

A shocked Balan raised an alarm and informed his inspector, who was at the spot. They immediately alerted traffic policemen in the next junction, who stopped the car near a star hotel in MRC Nagar.

  

They subjected him to the alcohol test and booked him for drunken driving and he has to pay a fine of Rs 2,500 in the court. He was also booked by the  Abhiramapuram police for stealing the breath analyser based on a complaint from the traffic enforcement wing police. 

They registered a case for theft and using criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty. Interrogations revealed that he was coming from his friend’s house in Koyambedu.