Faulty machine sets ‘drunk’ free

Mumbai: A Magistrate court has acquitted a man caught for allegedly driving his motorcycle in a drunken state in south Mumbai. The court acquitted the accused because the traffic police was using a breath analyser that had not been calibrated for around eight months, despite being supposed to be calibrated every three months. It also noted that the man’s blood sample was not sent for testing.

The prosecution’s case was that on December 3, 2015, the Azad Maidan Traffic Branch was holding a nakabandi under their jurisdiction and had halted the motocyclist Rajesh Nakhva and he was tested with an analyser, the result was positive, indicating the influence of alcohol to be beyond the permissible limit. Following this, the police registered a case against him under the section 185 of the Motor Vehicle Act.

After conducting the trial, A.D. Palaspagar, additional chief metropolitan magistrate at Ballad Pier court observed that the prosecution examined police sub inspector Ramesh Avhad as the sole witness in the case but in his statement, he said that his assistant was operating the analyser and couldn’t give any details about the result of the breath analyser.

The magistrate also noted that no documents were produced to show that his blood sample was sent for analysis and the last calibration of the machine was done on May 13, 2015, more than seven months before being used on the accused.

“A doubt is created regarding the breath analyser test of the accused as the said machine was used without its calibration,” said the judge while acquitting Nakhva.