In a sign that drunken driving is on the rise in Bengaluru, the traffic police arrested a school bus driver for driving under the influence of alcohol and this represents the third such instance in the past week.

The driver was caught on Old Airport Road while police personnel were conducting checks on school bus drivers as per a report in The Times of India. 

“Shahaji Mule of Chaitanya School was transporting 32 students of a school. He claimed he had a drink around 12.30pm. He was caught at 5.30pm,“ said a police officer.

On Tuesday, June 7, a 32-year-old school bus driver was booked for alleged drunken driving. The Mico Layout police arrested the driver Jagdish, a resident of Kanakapura, around 7.45 am, when the police spotted him driving recklessly near Jayadeva junction. 

As the police intercepted the school bus that belonged to Delhi Public School and was reportedly carrying 20 students at the time, they performed an alcometer check on Jagdish. It was found that his blood alcohol limit was above the permissible limit.

Following this, the police seized the vehicle and booked the driver under Section 279 IPC for rash and negligent driving, endangering public lives and Section 185 of the Indian Motor Vehicles Act, reported Deccan Herald. 

In the second reported case in the city a day earlier on Monday, the Wilson Garden police arrested a 25-year-old driver on Siddhiah Road. Driver Ravi, was caught for drunk driving and according to the police, he did not even posses a driving licence. 

The Bengaluru City Police Commissioner had issued an order last year that schools must keep an alcometer and inspect bus drivers before they pick up students. The order had been issued to all the 4000 schools in the city in September last year, after a number of bus drivers were booked for drunk driving.