INDORE: The Madhya Pradesh police on Tuesday registered a case against Congress MLA Sanjay Shukla, city Congress president Vinay Bakaliwal, and 29 other people in Indore after they protested against the city administration's COVID-19 guidelines.
Amrita Solanki, the station in-charge of Sarafa police station, said Shukla, Bakaliwal and their supporters tried to violate the district magistrate's order of opening left and right side shops on alternate days. They staged a protest march against the order in Bartan Bazar and Nihal Pura area, both of which fall under Sarafa Bazar police station, Solanki said.
"They tried to open all shops. They even violated the social distancing norms by collecting a large crowd. In this situation we registered a case against them under various sections of Indian Penal Court including section 188 (Disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant), 270 (Malignant act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life), and 34 (Acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention)," she said.
She said the accused violated the rules at a time when Indore was in a vulnerable position with respect to COVID-19 and more than 300 people have lost their lives to the viral infection.
Madhya Police has named 14 people other than Shukla and Bakaliwal with the remaining 15 being unnamed.
"We will add more names after watching the video footage and identifying them," said Solanki.