479 violators caught; police book some, shame others

With lockdown violations continuing across the city, the Mumbai Police has registered 265 FIRs against 479 people on Friday. However, as a large number of people

With lockdown violations continuing across the city, the Mumbai Police has registered 265 FIRs against 479 people on Friday. However, as a large number of people are violating lockdown orders the police are not finding it practical to book all of them, and hence they are dealing with violators by giving them different types of punishments such as making them do sit-ups or hen-punishment in public. There have been instances of lathi charge as well.

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4,617 booked for lockdown violation till date

Of the 265 FIRs registered on Friday, 170 are for gathering in public and 75 are for unnecessary use of vehicles. Of the 479 people booked, 311 have been arrested. Majority of the cases were registered in parts where most of the containment zones are located. 86 cases were reported from central region and 63 in western.

Since March 20, a total of 2,470 FIRs have been registered including 1,709 for gathering in one place and 4,617 people have been booked across the city with 3,485 arrests.

The Mumbai Police on their Twitter handle are receiving complaints from across the city about gatherings.

Cops take to shaming violators

As the number of violators has increased, police are cautiously booking the violators in a bid to avoid crowd gathering at police station.

A police officer from western suburbs said, “We are making announcements regularly, but some people will never listen. As it’s not practical to register FIR against all of them, we have to resort to other tactics like hen punishment.”

Sangramsinh Nishandar, deputy commissioner of police, zone 1, carried out a parade on Friday in Dongri, Pydhonie and JJ Marg urging people to stay home. Nishandar said, “Several people are not ready to listen and come out of their buildings making false excuses that they want to buy onions or oil. This is misuse of lockdown rules. Youngsters who are coming down may contract the disease and spread it among their family members. Even parents convince their children not to venture out in such testing times. We have started taking action against youngsters found roaming unnecessarily.”

87 cases of hate speech related to Covid-19

“Till Saturday a total of 172 cases have been registered for fake news, rumours and hate speech on social media sites across the state including 87 cases for hate speech related to Covid-19. Of these cases, What App had 85 cases, Facebook 49 cases, Tiktok 3 cases and twitter 2 cases. 32 people have been arrested while another 108 accused have been identified,” said Balsing Rajput, SP, Maharashtra Cyber.

Trio booked for murder attempt on cop

Bangur Nagar police on Friday arrested two men and detained a minor on charges of attempt to murder after they knocked down a 54-year-old on-duty policeman when he tried to stop them on Friday.

Assistant sub inspector Uttam Raut, 54, suffered a maxillary bone fracture on his jaw and minor injuries above his eye and face in the incident.

Cops restrict hawker movement

Abhishek Trimukhe, DCP of zone 9 which has 57 confirmed Covid-19 cases, said, “We have stopped all hawkers and vendors to operate even outside containment zones so people do not venture out. At the same time, measures are being taken to ensure people get their essential supplies.”

Meanwhile, the number of policemen who tested positive for Covid-19 rose to three.

(With inputs from Faisal Tandel)