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Administration lodges FIR after rumours of Covid-19 spreading to stage 3
The Ghaziabad district administration Thursday ordered an FIR against unidentified persons for spreading rumours about Covid-19 outbreak reaching stage 3 — when
The Ghaziabad district administration Thursday ordered an FIR against unidentified persons for spreading rumours about Covid-19 outbreak reaching stage 3 — when the disease is spread widely through the community, without any personal contact with a patient.
The police said they registered an FIR under the IPC Section 505 (statements conducing to public mischief) at Kavi Nagar police station.
This is the first FIR which has been filed after the UP government recently adopted the Epidemic Act following Covid-19 outbreak. The police from Kavi Nagar police station said the complaint in the case was given by the local police post incharge after he came to know that some persons were spreading these rumours.
On Tuesday, the director general of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) Balram Bhargava had said India is in stage 2 of the outbreak. On Thursday, after random sample testing, the ICMR had ruled out any community spread.
“The police post incharge came to know about rumours spreading in his jurisdiction areas and gave a complaint after which we lodged an FIR against unidentified persons. Investigation is on in the case,” Mohammad Aslam, SHO of Kavi Nagar police station, said.
The FIR also stated that rumour mongers were trying to create panic among locals and saying that they have about a week to protect their families.
“We have said we will lodge FIRs and take strict legal action in case anyone is found spreading fake messages or rumours about Covid-19,” Ajay Shankar Pandey, district magistrate, said.
According to district health department officials, they have so far sent 47 samples for testing of Covid-19 and 36 have tested negative for the disease. They added that two were found positive and one of them was discharged after recovering from the infection.
“Reports of nine samples are awaited. Only one person who is still positive for Covid-19 is in the isolation ward of MMG Hospital. One more sample of his has been sent for testing. In case that turns out to be negative, the patient will be discharged. Overall, we have about 368 persons who have a travel history to a foreign country and our teams are tracking them,” Dr NK Gupta, chief medical officer, Ghaziabad, said.
On Thursday, the district inspector of schools has directed the closure of all coaching and tuition classes and has also asked schools to not to pressure teachers and staff to come to work. The UP government had earlier directed the closure of all schools and educational institutions till April 2.
The Ghaziabad Development Authority has also stopped taking biometric attendance of staff and has limited the functioning hours from 10am to noon.
“The decisions was taken in the wake of virus outbreak. We have also cancelled the scheduled meetings and taking up regular sanitisation and cleaning process at the authority headquarters,” Kanchan Verma, vice-chairperson, GDA, said.
