It was not a walk in the park for these revellers

Six drunk men held as escape bid from police goes awry in Lalbagh

A group of three inebriated friends, drove a car into the Lalbagh to escape being caught by the traffic police late on Saturday night.

But they ended up in the police net as their car got stuck in the mud. Three of their accomplices in another car outside the park were also arrested.

The friends, all residents of Siddapura, were on a jolly ride. As they were returning home, they saw from a distance that the traffic police were checking for drunken driving on the Double Road. In a bid to dodge the police, the driver of one of the cars drove into Lalbagh through the main gate that is kept open all through the day.

On approaching the Glass House inside Lalbagh, he lost control of the vehicle and rammed it into a garden fence.

The car became stuck in the mud and they were unable to drive it further. The three in the car contacted their other friends in another car outside and explained the situation to them. The three men tried to enter Lalbagh in their car.

The Siddapura police, on night patrolling, intercepted the car near the main gate and took the three men, who were drunk, into custody.

Based on the information they gave, the police apprehended the other three inside the Lalbagh.

Miscreants identified

The arrested have been identified as Prem Kumar, Guruprasad, Shashidhar, Manjunath, Shreyas and Kiran, all in their early 20s. While one of them was a pre-university student, the others were working with private firms in the City.

The Siddapura police have registered a case against the six for trespassing the premises of Lalbagh under Section 448 of the Indian Penal Code. The youths were released on station bail on Sunday morning. The Wilson Garden traffic police have booked two men for drunken driving.

Ravishankar, Inspector of the Siddapura police station, said that had security guards been posted at the gates of Lalbagh, this incident would not have happened. He said while security was posted at all gates of the botanical garden during the day, no guard was posted in the night.

The  inspector said that this incident should act as a wake-up call for the management of Lalbagh to prevent such incidents.

“I will write to the director of Lalbagh appraising him of the security loopholes on the premises and advice him to fix them at the earliest,” he said.

Weekend drive

In the special weekend drive against drunken driving that the group tried to escape, the City traffic police caught 1,023 drivers. B Dayananda, Additional Commissioner (Traffic and Security), told Deccan Herald that they had registered 480 cases in East division and 553 cases in West division on Saturday night alone.