The Chennai police have booked 891 cases so far for the bursting crackers on Deepavali in violation of the stipulated timings.
Following the orders of the Supreme Court and the guidelines of the State government, people were allowed to burst crackers between 6 am and 7 am and 7 pm and 8 pm on Deepavali day. City Police Commissioner Shankar Jiwal had instructed police officers to monitor the situation and take suitable action on violations.
A senior police officer said, “We were booking cases for violations from Monday. The maximum number of cases were booked on the day of Deepavali, Thursday. They were booked under section 286 (Negligent conduct with respect to explosive substance) of the Indian Penal Code or provisions of the City Police Act and environmental laws. Fines were collected from the violators since it is a bailable offence.”
The city police said its officers enhanced vigil and booked 796 cases alone on the day of Deepavali, for bursting crackers in breach of the specified timings. Altogether so far 891, cases have been booked since Monday.
As many as 204 cases were booked in 2019 and 428 cases were booked in 2020 for bursting crackers in breach of the stipulated timings.
This time, the police also booked over 250 cases against temporary cracker shops for violation of government guidelines and conditions.
