FIR against Christmas event organiser in Guj for COVID-19 norms violation

PTI, Dec 26, 2021, 4:46 PM IST

Police have registered an FIR against the organiser of a party on Christmas and two other persons here in Gujarat for allegedly violating the COVID-19 guidelines, officials said on Sunday.

The action was taken after police came across a video which purportedly showed several men, women and children swaying to music at a DJ party organised at a plot (open space) in Umra locality of the city on Saturday night, they said.

”The organisers had sought permission from authorities to hold an exhibition, which was granted. But, they were found violating the COVID-19 guidelines pertaining to social distancing and other norms. After the video came to the notice of the Umra police, an FIR was registered against three persons, including the event organiser,” an official from Umra police station said.

The case was registered against the event organiser, Vipul Joshi, and two others under Section 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant) of the Indian Penal Code, and provisions of the Epidemic Diseases Act, the official said.

Further investigation was underway on the basis of the video, he said.

Surat city has so far reported two cases of the Omicron variant of COVID-19. On Saturday, Surat city reported With 20 new cases COVID-19, pushing the infection tally to 1,12,045. So far, 1,630 patients have died due to the viral infection, while 1,10,306 people have recovered from the disease in the city, as per figures release by the Surat Municipal Corporation. Amid the Omicron concern and increase in daily new coronavirus cases, the Gujarat government had extended the duration of night curfew in eight cities – Ahmedabad, Surat, Rajkot, Vadodara, Junagadh, Jamnagar, Bhavnagar and Gandhinagar – by two hours from Saturday.

The curfew would be in force from 11 pm to 5 am instead of 1 am to 5 am, a notification issued by the state home department had said.

Gujarat has seen a surge in COVID-19 cases of late. On Thursday, more than 100 new cases were reported in a single day after nearly seven months.

The state has also reported 30 cases of Omicron variant so far.

These cases have been reported in Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat, Jamnagar and Gandhinagar.