No masks, social distancing: Chamara sarpanch among 9 booked after video of people dancing in wedding procession emerges

In view of the coronavirus pandemic, night curfew between 8 pm to 6 am has been imposed on Anand and 35 other cities in Gujarat and under the norms no wedding processions are allowed.

Nine persons, including the Chamara village sarpanch in Anand, have been booked for violating Covid-19 protocols after a video of a wedding procession emerged in social media where several people are purportedly seen dancing without masks, police said Tuesday.

In view of the coronavirus pandemic, night curfew between 8 pm to 6 am has been imposed on Anand and 35 other cities in Gujarat and under the norms no wedding processions are allowed.

According to the police, the incident took place on May 8 night during the wedding of Suresh Padhiar, the nephew of a local Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and sarpanch of Chamara village Raju alias Balwant Padhiar, at the village in Anklav taluka. In a video of the procession, which was uploaded on the social media, people were seen dancing to music played by a disc jockey (DJ), without wearing masks or following social-distancing norms, police added.

After the video surfaced, a police team from Anklav police station was sent to the village to investigate. “The sarpanch, Raju alias Balwant Padhiar, informed us that his nephew’s wedding took place on May 8 night. He had not taken any permission for the DJ show or the wedding procession, and that the people seen in the video were not wearing masks,” a police official at Anklav police station said.

Police have so far identified eight persons — Raju Padhiar, Arvind Padhiar, Kuldeep Padhiar, Dharmendrasinh Padhiar, Pradipsinh Padhiar, Kiransinh Padhiar, Prahladsinh Padhiar, Arjunsinh Padhiar — and the DJ. All accused have been booked under IPC sections 188 for disobedience to order given by public servant, 269 for negligent act likely to cause spread of infection of a disease and sections of the Epidemic Diseases Act and Disaster Management Act. None of the accused have been detained in the case yet.

The incident comes days after a video of hundreds of women devotees, with steel pots (kalash) on their heads, were seen in the video taking out a procession from Navapara village towards Baliyadev temple in nearby Nidradh village on May 4 flouting social-distancing norms.

Ahmedabad rural police arrested 46 people in the case, while a show cause notice was issued to Sanand Mamlatdar VS Zeed last week.

Source: Read Full Article