Hyderabad: In an attempt to escape from the clutches of cops after being caught for drunk driving, an auto-rickshaw driver whipped out a snake and threatened to let lose the reptile on them if they dared to nab him or seize his vehicle. The incident that took place around 9.30 pm on Saturday at Chandrayangutta crossroads, quickly turned into a spectacle with a crowd gathering around to get a glimpse of the driver’s antics.Some among them even captured a video that soon went viral on social media platforms. Cops, however, later found that it was a dead, non poisonous snake.In the clip, the driver Syed Irfan is seen going after the cops with the snake wrapped around his arm – even swinging it at some of them to scare them away. Local police said the 23-year-old resorted to the drama after he was stopped to check for drunk driving as part of their weekend enforcement drive and tested positive for high alcohol content. His Blood Alcohol Count (BAC) was 110 mg/100 ml against the permitted 30 mg.Police immediately pulled him to the side and seized his three-wheeler.“Irfan was cooperative till he gave the test. Once his vehicle was seized, he got angry. He pulled out the the snake from the auto and threatened to let it bite the cops there,” said R Gopi, inspector, Chandrayangutta (law & order).In the video, the driver is heard continuously asking the police “gaadi hona?” (you want the vehicle?) while scaring them away with the snake.“When onlookers asked him if the snake was real, he said yes. But at that moment was tough to say if it indeed was the case, or if it was just a dummy,” said an official of Chandrayangutta traffic police.By the time law and order police reached the spot, the driver had fled from the spot.On Sunday, police caught Irfan – who works as a cook-cum-auto driver – from Pahadishareef and arrested him for obstructing police from performing duties besides creating nuisance.“He told us that it was dead snake that he had found on the road side in Bahadurpura earlier in the day and had kept it in the autorickshaw,” said inspector Gopi.Cops suspect the snake might have slipped out from the zoo park nearby.
