Lockdown violation: 4,337 vehicles seized, cops file 18,262 FIRs

To discourage people from defying lockdown and prevent youths from unnecessarily roaming around, in the city, the police have cracked down on the motorists and seized

To discourage people from defying lockdown and prevent youths from unnecessarily roaming around, in the city, the police have cracked down on the motorists and seized 4,337 vehicles across the state, till Saturday afternoon. The drive of seizing vehicles has been intensified to prevent the spread of pandemic coronavirus which has claimed 26 lives in the state so far.

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Home minister Anil Deshmukh, on Friday, on Twitter, said that people who are unnecessarily roaming around in their areas on vehicles, stern action will be taken against them and their vehicles would be seized by the police.

“The state police has so far seized 4,337 vehicles and collected fines of over ₹42 lakhs from those who violated laws,” said Vinayak Deshmukh, assistant inspector general of police (law and order).

The police across all the districts in the state have also registered around 18,262 FIRs till Saturday. “These cases were registered against those who were not following the orders of movement restrictions under section 144 of CrPC and not shutting down shops, and roaming freely in public,” said Deshmukh.

In many districts, cases of clashes of police with the public were also reported. At some places, police resorted to lathi-charge to disperse the crowd.

Cases of attacks on policemen were also reported. Deshmukh said that the police registered around 46 cases of assault on policemen across the state, during the lockdown. In these cases, 160 offenders were arrested, he said.

In Mumbai, around 100 FIRs have been registered by the police on Friday, in connection with the breach of lockdown. In these cases, nearly 166 people were booked and 137 were arrested. The arrested offenders were later released on bail. Since March 20, a total of 888 cases have been registered under section 188 of IPC and 1,332 were arrested in Mumbai.

Pranaya Ashok, DCP (operations) and spokesperson for Mumbai Police said, “Till now we are concentrating on making announcements and registering FIRs to control the crowd. Apart from this, we are using our Twitter handle to appeal to people to stay at home.”

When asked if more manpower and drones will be needed as the number of containment zones is increasing, Ashok said, “As of today we can manage the containment zones with the existing manpower. We will use additional manpower if needed.”

66 FIRs against rumour monger

“A total of 66 FIRs have been registered across the state till now for spreading misinformation and rumours related to Covid-19. Further, many cyber fraudsters are trying to cash in on the lockdown by circulating phishing traps. We have made a list of such frauds and issued an advisory on our Twitter handle,” said Balsing Rajput, superintendent, Maharashtra cyber department.

Cops enhance their safety

The Mumbai police force has enhanced their safety measures after a deputy commissioner rank officer was hospitalised following complaints of dry cough and exhaustion on Thursday. As a precautionary measure, his samples were collected, which turned out negative. The officer has been commended in ensuring implementation of lockdown, especially to keep a tab on vehicles trying to get out of the city. “The officer was on roads while trying to ensure that there are no violations of lockdown, exposing him to dust and heat,” said a high-ranking police officer. The officer had conducted meetings with his junior officers as well as seniors. The police personnel who are at the forefront in dealing with several citizens, some of them in dense slums, have been asked to ensure that they maintain social distancing. On Saturday, home minister Anil Deshmukh distributed personal protective equipment to policemen for their safety while performing the duty.

No toilets, sheds for cops on road

A DCP rank officer said that policemen are continuously manning the streets and implementing effective lockdown without proper basic requirements. “The policemen are on the street 24x7 and many places do not even have basic toilets and sheds. Police personnel especially the women are facing difficulties,” the senior officer said. Policemen are forced to take safety precautions.

Senior officials are giving pocket hand sanitisers to all field officers and constables who are doing patrolling on street and dealing with control room calls which are related to Covid-19 suspects. The cops are taking extra precautions to avoid getting infected with the deadly virus. “The entire police station is being disinfected at regular interval of two to three hours and the cleaning staff members have been specially told to sanitise the handles, table, chair, armrests, etc at the police station premises,” said an officer. Also, hand sanitiser has been kept at the welcome desk, where the guests are desisted to use the pen while making their entry in the register. All the constables, who are doing patrolling or dealing with control calls related to Covid suspect have been given facemasks, hand gloves and pocket sanitisers. So that after every interaction they can use sanitisers on their hands.

Meanwhile, the Mumbai Police Twitter handle on Saturday continued to receive several tweets from people across Mumbai’s suburbs complaining against people gathering in one place in their areas. The Mumbai Police relayed the information to the main control room for further action.

600 cops tested; 422 negative, report of rest awaited:

Around 600 policemen have been tested for Covid-19. 422 of them have tested negative. Reports of others are yet to come, said a police officer. The policemen to have undergone the testing are involved in escorting the Covid-19 patients from their homes to hospitals, manning the quarantined and isolation centres and deployed in security bandobast at over 200 no-go containment areas in the city.

Seinor inspector provides a month’s ration for 200 staffers

Vijayalaxmi Hiremath, senior inspector of Bandra police station has bought ration for nearly 200 staffers at the police station. She said, “My staff is working round the clock to ensure that people follow lockdown. To help my staff and their families I bought food grains for them from my salary.”

(With inputs from Pratik Salunkhe and Suraj Ojha)