Mumbai: A 42-year-old businesswoman was stopped by the police in Bandra on Monday night as part of their routine drunken driving checks. What followed was some serious drama for the next two hours with the woman, who was found to be drunk, abusing and threatening the police and then refusing to come out of her car for over one hour.
According to the Bandra traffic police division, Shivani Surjeet Bali is a resident of Dalamal Court on Worli Sea Face. Ms Bali was homebound in her Hyundai i10 and the traffic police intercepted her vehicle on the southbound stretch of Bandra reclamation in front of the MSRDC office around 12.30 am.
The traffic police checked her breath with a breathalyser and found blood alcohol content to be 81 mg per 100 ml, which is nearly three times over the permissible limit which is 30 mg.
After being checked, Ms Bali went back inside her car and locked the doors for close to 100 minutes, while the policemen were waiting helplessly outside to take her to police station. She then went on to play loud music and smoke a cigarette inside the locked car. The police finally broke a small part of the rear window and opened the car. A lady constable got her out and took her to police station. Through this exercise, the woman continued to threaten and abuse the policemen.
Police sub-inspector of traffic division Dattatray Choughale said, “She abused us and threatened to get us suspended. She asked us for our names and said that she had major clout.” Inspector Pradeep Chavan said she was booked under Section 185 of Motor Vehicle Act for drunk driving.
