June,4,2015: Bhargav had challenged the Magisterial Court order that had jailed him while holding him guilty of the offences of driving under the influence of alcohol.

A person driving under heavy intoxication is like a “suicidal human bomb” who can take the lives of many others, a Delhi court has observed while upholding the three-day jail term of a man convicted of riding a scooter in an inebriated state.

Additional Sessions Judge Lokesh Kumar Sharma said appellant Rohit Bhargav is not entitled to any leniency and dismissed his appeal against the trial court order last month sentencing him to three days in jail.

“In my opinion the appellant while riding the two wheeler scooter under such heavy intoxication, was just acting like a suicidal human bomb, who could have taken the lives of others while driving the vehicle in such a state of mind and it could have also proved fatal for him due to a slightest mistake committed by him on road".

“Hence, in the given set of facts and circumstances, the appellant is not entitled to any leniency of this court... no ground warranting an interference of this court in the exercise of its appellate powers and jurisdiction is made out. Accordingly, appeal is dismissed,” the judge said.

Bhargav had challenged the May 5 order of a magisterial court that had jailed him while holding him guilty of the offences of driving under the influence of alcohol and without a licence and insurance under the Motor Vehicles Act.

The trial court had also slapped a fine of Rs. 3,600 on Bhargav, a resident of Gulabi Bagh in north Delhi.

One serious road accident in the country occurs every minute and 16 die on Indian roads every hour. Over 1,37,000 people were killed in road accidents in India in  2013 alone, that is more than the number of people killed in all our wars put together. 

Out of this 1.37 lakh fatalities, a vast 70 per cent of them being due to drunken driving, questions are now being raised on whether the mushrooming growth of liquor vends along the highways is responsible for costing precious lives in an untimely manner.

The Community Against Drunken Driving (CADD) said nearly 70 per cent of all fatalities are due to drunken driving, with the figure running between 44 per cent to 67 per cent in smaller cities. Despite prosecution of drunken driving having increased by about seven times in Delhi and 16 times in Mumbai since 2001, there has been no corresponding decrease in accidents and fatalities.

CADD noted that “24 hour availability of alcohol along National and State highways results in impulsive buying of alcohol and about 72 per cent of road accidents on National Highways”.

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