Thousands booked in midnight raids to make Kolkata roads safer

KOLKATA: As many as 2,586 persons were booked for various offences on road — 1,915 of them for dangerous driving and 671 for disorderly conduct — during a police drive between 9pm on Saturday night and 1am on Sunday at all prominent intersections in the city.
The “block raids” were conducted simultaneously at 50-odd points across the city, with officers of police stations and traffic guards, led by divisional DCs, prosecuting traffic rule violators and law-and-order offenders.

Of those booked, more than 1,500 were riding twowheelers. Cops said this was the first block raid conducted in the city this month, as the winter is slowly withering away and with the onset of spring, more people are hitting the streets at night with two-wheelers, posing hazard to themselves as well as others.
“During winter, instances of dangerous driving involving two-wheelers remains comparatively low, but now that the summer is approaching, more and more rogue bikers are hitting the road. That resulted in the large number of offenders being prosecuted during the midnight raid. From now on, we will organise more late-night naka checks, especially against rash driving by two-wheelers and drink driving,” said a senior Kolkata Police officer.
Of the 1,495 bikers who were prosecuted, 986 were not wearing helmets and 509 were triple-riding. Five vehicles were seized. In all, 155 were driving or riding under influence. According to police, 105 were prosecuted for rash driving and another 671 were booked for disorderly conduct.
According to police, the block raids were conducted in areas under the jurisdiction of Kolkata Police.
The drive was supervised by senior officers like divisional commissioners, assistant commissioners and officers in charge of various police stations, detective department and traffic department. The officers even raided hideouts of offenders based on intelligence inputs and set up naka posts across the city.
“It is a sustained but impromptu drive which will be taken up often. Nabbing some of the known criminals as preventive arrest is also a part of the drive,” said a senior officer of Kolkata Police.
During the surprise raids, police also raided some hotels, night clubs and illegal liquor dens, arrested 31 trouble-mongers and seized around 305 litres of illegal liquor. Armed with breathalysers and speed guns, cops posted at the check posts scanned over 5,000 bikes and cars.