Forty six people held for taking out procession to ‘eradicate COVID-19’

This is the second such incident in Gujarat in the last few of days.

May 06, 2021 01:13 pm | Updated 01:13 pm IST - Ahmedabad:

Police have arrested 46 people for taking out a religious procession at a village in Gandhinagar district to “eradicate coronavirus”, an official said on Thursday.

This is the second such incident in Gujarat in the last few of days.

All COVID-19 prevention norms were allegedly violated during the latest procession taken out in Raipur village of Gandhinagar on Wednesday, Deputy Superintendent of Police M. K. Rana said.

In a video that went viral on social media platforms on Thursday, around 100 men and women, many without masks, were seen participating in a procession in the village. While women were carrying water pots on their heads, several men were leading the procession while beating drums.

“After being alerted about the incident, we have arrested 46 men involved in taking out the procession,” Mr. Rana said.

A section of people from the village believed coronavirus could be eradicated by pouring water on a local temple of their deity, he said.

All the 46 accused were booked for violating police notification regarding gatherings under section 188 of the Indian Penal Code and provisions of the Disaster Management Act and the Epidemic Diseases Act, the official said.

On May 3, a similar incident took place at Navapura village in Ahmedabad where a large number of women carrying water pots on their heads took out a procession to a local temple, believing that pouring water on the temple would eradicate COVID-19 .

Police had arrested 23 people, including the village sarpanch, for organising the event.

The Gujarat government has already imposed a ban on all kinds of gatherings in the State in the wake of a surge in coronavirus cases.

On Wednesday, Gujarat reported 12,955 new coronavirus cases, raising its tally to 6,33,427, while 133 deaths pushed the toll to 7,912, as per the State Health Department.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.