HYDERABAD: An hour past midnight on Friday, a swank white Porsche came roaring up the road from Jubilee Hills checkpost to the KBR Park gate. It did a screaming u-turn round the divider but stopped as it came up against a barricade set up by the Banjara Hills police to rein in Hyderabad’s notorious community of speed demons.
It was the witching hour of Friday night after all, just the time when scions of Jubilee Hills take their wheels out for a spin and test their F1 credentials.
When the cops walked up to the window, they saw a young man at the wheel, looking slightly abashed, and his group of friends. It had been a busy night for the police. They had stopped four cars and nine souped-up motorcycles and registered cases of rash driving against 14 youngsters.
The young man did not identify himself. But a quick check of the sports car’s registration showed that it belonged to Sujana Universal Industries Limited. The company’s promoter was the Union minister for science and technology Y S ‘Sujana’ Chowdary and this young man his son Sai Karthik. He is a business grad from the US.
A case was registered against Sai Karthik on charge of driving a vehicle dangerously posing a threat to lives of other people under Section 184 (B) of the Motor Vehicle Act. The Porsche was seized.
The minister’s son was directed to go home and be present for a counselling session in the morning at the Begumpet Traffic Training Institute.
However, he did not turn up for the session. He said his wedding was fixed for April 21 and he had a pre-wedding ceremony and other engagement on Saturday.
A police officer sought anonymity to speak about the incident.
“He is getting married in four days and there are certain pre-wedding ceremonies that he has to attend. Which is why he could not attend the counselling session today. A responsible person from the family has given us an undertaking along with a request to postpone the counselling.”
When contacted, deputy commissioner of Police L S Chowhan insisted that Karthik will not be let off without counselling.
As it was his first offence, police have directed him to undergo counselling and receive a ‘stern’ warning.
By police reckoning, Friday night was a rather quiet day. “There was no organised racing that we came across.
Over a period of three hours in the night, we caught many offenders. But most of them had taken out their high-end cars and bikes for testing their top speeds,” said Chowhan.
The 0.3 km wide stretch between Jubilee hills checkpost and KBR Park gate has become notorious for drag racing in the last decade or so.