Curfew violators perplex UT cops with hilarious excuses

Amarjot Kaur

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 12

Guarding the city’s curfew gates, the UT police personnel are encountering hilarious excuses from lockdown violators — ranging from a man going to the bank on a Sunday to a youth trying to pass the barricades by showing a year-old medical prescription. While sometimes the violators are penalised, the cops have been lenient in situations where the reason is genuine.

Most recently, a cop posted near Sector 44 had to impound the two-wheeler ride of a Maloya man. Requesting anonymity, the officer on duty said: “Imagine a man coming all the way from Maloya for a bank-related work, that too on a Sunday. I mean which bank is open on a Sunday?”

Another violator told the cops that he had reached the barricade while looking for chicken. “At 5 pm, two hours past the shopping deadline, a young man tried to reason with us so that he got through the checkpoint. He said he’d been looking for chicken all day long and had been touring the city as he was bored of eating vegetarian meals,” another cop said.

Stationed at various checkpoints across the city, the cops on duty have come across bizarre explanations from the curfew violators. At a police post in Sector 32, a cop said, “A young boy, who was without the curfew pass and was carrying a year-old prescription, demanded that he be allowed to buy medicines for his parents. Another cop said, “A boy wanted to get through the barricade to go for a job interview. I could do little, but laugh at the explanation. When I requested him to go back, he smiled and agreed.”

However, cops let senior citizens pass if the explanation is believable. “Though not many senior citizens venture out, considering the hazard Covid-19 poses to their health, but if they come out to buy medicines or visit a doctor, we don’t trouble them. For youngsters, who give a believable excuse, we ask them to park their vehicles on their side of the sector and walk the distance,” said a cop.

Chandigarh SSP Nilambari Jagdale said, “We told the cops of one thumb rule: the broad guidelines must be followed, but at the same time, they must apply their common sense in all situations. There was an incident where a man said that his wife was pregnant and admitted to a hospital, but when the cops asked him to make a call to his pregnant wife, his bluff was caught. Our job is to determine who’s genuine and who’s not, so we are running all necessary checks.”