KOCHI: City police registered 124 cases and arrested 128 persons for violating the lockdown advisory, while about 303 cases were registered and 326 persons arrested by Ernakulam Rural Police on Wednesday, the second day after Section 144 was clamped on the district as part of the state-wide lockdown to fight the Covid-19 outbreak.
As many as 120 vehicles were seized in the city while 211 vehicles were seized in rural police limits. With this, total number of people arrested in the district for violating prohibitory orders reached 454.
The police personnel had a tough time on Wednesday too as hundreds hit the streets in their vehicles. The police tightened the checking and sent back those who had ventured out unnecessarily.
City police registered a case for spreading fake messages on the Covid-19 outbreak. According to the police officers, stringent checking will be conducted in the coming days. Meanwhile, the police stations in the city witnessed a rush of people for getting passes for travelling though the police exempted a section of people apart from those coming under essential services. The vehicle checking was conducted for 24 hours under all 34 stations in the rural police limits.
Every vehicle is being checked and the police officials are taking stringent action against those who are travelling unnecessarily. Checking is being conducted thoroughly at the district borders and travel passes are being issued by the police to those who are in urgent need.
Doctors, nurses and other employees of private hospitals, ambulance drivers, medical shop and lab employees, mobile tower technicians, data centre operators, food delivery staff in uniform, private security staff, cooking gas distribution employees and petrol pump staff have been exempted from getting passes from police.
They can show their ID cards issued by their organisations while going for work. Ernakulam Rural SP K Karthik said that police checking will be made stringent in the coming days.