Woman on the backseat is the escape route

CHENNAI: Chennai Police may be cracking down on drunken driving. But is there a simple way of bypassing the stringent checks by the men in khaki? It certainly seems so. Ask anyone who is a regular at clubs and pubs across the city, and they will tell you that travelling with a woman is by far the simplest way to hoodwink the cops.Not that police don’t know what you are up to, but a law that makes it mandatory for a woman constable to be present after 6pm to detain a woman seems to be behind the free pass for drunken drivers at a majority of checkpoints.“It is quite simple. Whether you are in a car or on a motorbike, if you have a girl sitting behind you, the cops will not even stop you. The moment they realise there’s a girl behind you they will just flag you on. What the woman’s age is does not make a difference,” says Craig (name changed), a regular at pubs and clubs in Nungambakkam and T Nagar.Even women admit they have it easy. “I enjoy a few odd drinks once in a while, but I have not been stopped even once,” says Shweta (name changed), a graphic designer.It also becomes easier to bypass cops, some suggest, if you are in a car. “If I am going to catch a drink, I ensure I take my car and not my bike. It’s not a question of safety, it is just that the cops stop almost every bike, but very few cars are stooped and checked,” says Craig.But Commissioner Tripathy laughs at such  a ‘wisdom’. While he concedes having to let women pass thanks to the 6pm deadline, he says the crackdown is going effectively. “Don’t drink and drive, because irrespective of whether you are in a car or a bus or on a two-wheeler, we will catch you,” the Commissioner adds.