It was reported in Mountain Scene yesterday that Dame Sukhi claimed police went out of their way to back a complainant’s unproven allegation she drove dangerously over the Crown Range Rd from Queenstown to her home town of Wanaka in February.
A driver, who had phoned *555, said she had repeatedly crossed the centre line.In Dame Sukhi’s defence statement, she said she was stopped by Queenstown Senior Sergeant Jon Bisset, north of Cardrona, on February 21.
She said he repeatedly questioned her, despite admitting he had no proof, and told her, "We have to look after our people."
Dame Sukhi is visiting family in India at present.
Her husband, well-known former New Zealand cricketer Glenn Turner, yesterday told the Otago Daily Times "you can take what you like from that comment, but he may have thought Sukhi was a foreigner".
His view was that it made no difference.
"We have to look after all people, not just ‘our’ people."
To get diversion, Dame Sukhi admitted failing to drive in her lane, but said she overtook one vehicle on a straight stretch of road.At the time, Snr Sgt Bisset told her he would be sending her a $150 infringement ticket.
"As he walked off, he said that I had been breaching the centre line 30 times," she told Mountain Scene.
Dame Sukhi believed that, beyond checking she had not been drinking, Snr Sgt Bisset, under the police *555 protocol, should have done no more than issue her with a warning.
Dame Sukhi told the paper she had had a "first-class driving record" during her 43 years in New Zealand.
During her 12 years’ living in Wanaka, she estimated she had driven the Crown Range Rd more than 100 times.
Mr Turner said even when Dame Sukhi and he visited Queenstown Police Station to try to speak to someone about the incident "they couldn’t be bothered sending someone out".
The Turners were eventually asked if they wanted to make a formal complaint but by that stage "we just wanted it sorted".
