A businessman’s plan to ring in the New Year with his wife, child, and an aunt at Juhu beach ended with the family spending two-and-a-half hours at the Juhu police station and his vehicle being seized, as the driver he had hired to take them to their destination was found to be inebriated by traffic police officers manning a nakabandi near the JW Marriott. The police have registered an FIR against the driver.

The businessman, an Andheri West resident who did not wish to be identified, told mid-day it was not his family’s fault at all that the driver was drunk. “I regularly book drivers through an app. On the night of December 31, I attempted to do the same. Five or six drivers had accepted the booking but cancelled later. After almost an hour, a driver accepted the ride but told me to cancel saying he would send someone over through his reference.”