3,500 sent to jail for violating curfew

Nikhil Bhardwaj

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana April 8

In order to ensure that residents stay indoors amid the spread of Covid-19, over 3,500 such violators have been lodged in open jails. They were arrested during the past 12 days for violating curfew.

“Since the notification of four jails in Ludhiana on March 28, around 200 to 300 violators are being lodged in open jails every day. The police keep violators in jail for four to six hours just to teach them a lesson,” said Police Commissioner (CP) Rakesh Agrawal.

“We mainly arrest those people, who roam freely on roads and internal streets without any purpose. Now, with the strict imposition of curfew, daily average of such violators has decreased,” the CP added.

“No case is registered against people lodged in open jails. This practice is being followed to deter residents from violating curfew,” the CP said. “So far, we have registered more than 125 cases of curfew violations. A case under the Disaster Management Act and other sections of the IPC,” the CP added.

Notably, to deal with violators of the orders related to the lockdown, four temporary open jails were set up in Ludhiana district at New SD School, 33-feet Bahadurke Road, indoor stadium on Pakhowal Road, Guru Nanak Stadium and Valmiki Bhawan, Moti Nagar, Ludhiana. Officials upto the rank of ADC have been deputed as Assistant Superintendent, Jail, at these four locations.

The CP had also conducted a survey to find out hot spots of curfew violations in the city recently. As per the survey, as many as 91 such spots were identified.

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