70 persons held for drunken driving

Thiruvananthapuram: Three school bus drivers were among the 70 people held for drunken driving on the first day of Operation Cobra launched by city police. The city police launched the ten-day drive to check the rising crimes in the city. The drive was launched on Monday and has all wings under the city police, including crime, narcotics, traffic and city police control room and various divisions of patrol squads taking part in it.
The police team also held people for illegally altering their vehicles and some minors who were found driving without a licence were also penalised. Legal action was initiated against the drivers of school buses caught for drunken driving, school vans which were found carrying passengers beyond capacity, vehicles which ran without police clearance certificate and drivers who plied without wearing the uniform. Around 50 vehicles, including luxury cars and two-wheelers, were seized for illegal modifications. City police commissioner S Surendran said that police would release the vehicles only after ascertaining that they were not used for any kind of criminal activities. As many as 40 persons were booked for speeding.

The police also found schoolchildren who had bunked classes and were roaming around the city.

The city police commissioner said the objective of the drive was to turn the city safe for all sections of people.