In a rare judgement, six persons who were driving their two-wheelers on the wrong side of the road were sentenced with two-day imprisonment by the 16th Special Metropolitan Magistrate Court in Secunderabad, which also asked them to pay a fine of Rs 50 each on Wednesday.
The offenders were caught by the Bowenpally Law and Order police last week during a special drive.
The police generally books such offences under Section 119 and 177 of the Motor Vehicle (MV) Act for wrong side driving, which penalises the offenders with a challan of Rs 1,100. However, in these cases, the police booked them under Section 21/76 of the Hyderabad Police Act (charges of obstructing traffic).
Among the offenders caught under the Bowenpally police limits, all of them were driving on the wrong side of the road, including one person who was carrying a load of bamboo.
Hyderabad city commissioner Anjani Kumar told reporters that they were taking these offences seriously as they had been causing fatalities.
“It was the first time that violators of wrong side driving rule were being sentenced to imprisonment in city. The police were viewing such violations seriously now since there were several instances of wrong side driving violations leading to fatal accidents in the city. The Law and Order police too was assisting the Traffic police in cracking down on such violations,” Telangana Today quoted him as saying.
Warning the two-wheelers about the crack down, North Zone DCP Kalmeshwar Shingenavar was quoted as saying by The New Indian Express that, “We have identified where people are most likely to take a wrong route to dodge traffic. We will penalize offenders as such acts could cause accidents.”
According to the NIE report, in the first six months of 2019, police had issued challans of over 1,05, 346 individuals for driving on the wrong side of the road.