BANGALORE: In what could be the flip side of an extended nightlife, Bangalore Traffic Police have been zealously setting up drunk driving checkpoints across the city. The closer to a pub, the better.

It was 11pm, Sunday, March 30. At one such checkpoint on 100 Feet Road, Indiranagar, Rashmiranjan Mohapatra, 32, a senior engineer with an MNC, was asked to blow into an alcometer. It appears the instrument was faulty, for Mohapatra's breath gave a high reading, though the techie from Odisha swore he hadn't touched a drop of alcohol.

"I was stopped by traffic cops when I was returning home after visiting my brother-in-law at Manipal Hospital in Jayanagar. I stopped my bike and the cop asked me to blow into the breathalyzer. I was shocked when it showed 82mg alcohol/100 ml of blood," Mohapatra (name changed) told TOI. Mohapatra offered to blow afresh into the instrument, but all his entreaties that he was sober were brushed aside. Neither did they give him a simple sniff test to disprove the reading.

He asked cops if he could get a blood test done in hospital, but they refused. Later, they withdrew the case.

A helpful autorickshaw driver who realized the techie couldn’t speak the local language tried to play mediator, but the cops shooed him off. “The auto driver told me they wouldn’t listen. He also told me the officer was upset that I had questioned him, and he vowed to make me run around,” Mohapatra said.

A cornered techie parted with his bike and licence after drink-drive charges were slapped against him.

Determined to prove himself right, Mohapatra went from hospital to hospital to get a blood test done. Finally, around 3am, Manipal Hospital agreed for a medical test but asked him to wait for two hours for the result.

On Monday, he went to the Indiranagar traffic police station with the medical report, which said he was sober. But in the face of the report, cops gave him their own banana theory: that he had gobbled a couple of bananas to remove all traces of liquor and also kill its sharp smell.

“Initially, they told me they wouldn’t accept the blood test. I was asked if I’d eaten bananas to bring the liquor content down. But hospital staff told us that any test done within 24 hours is acceptable,” Mohapatra said.

Monday went by, but he didn’t get his bike back. On Tuesday morning, he went to the deputy commissioner of police, traffic (East), with his medical report. “He was helpful, and once he was convinced, he called up the Indiranagar traffic police inspector and told him to withdraw the complaint against me,” he said.

On Tuesday morning, Indiranagar station cops called Mohapatra, apologized and returned his bike.

How alcometer works

The breathalyzer contains an electronic chip that can detect the alcohol content in the breath of a suspect, said DCP (traffic, east) MNBR Prasad. “The electronic chip scans the breath of the suspect and the alcohol content reading reflects on the counter. The reading is taken as a printout.”

A technical officer in charge of training police officers in handling the device said the instrument is calibrated once in three months. “We have a lot of educated suspects who are always ahead of information on the alcometer and this forces us to calibrate the device every three months. The supplier services the device from time to time so the device is in perfect condition,” he said.