More than 200 motorists were caught by police while they were travelling using fake stickers, including “COVID-19 Duty”, “Chennai Corporation”, “Police”, “Press” or claiming to be essential service providers.
A senior police officer said, “Along with regular vehicle checks, we conducted a special drive to check motorists who are in the exempted category. As many as 239 motorists were rounded up as they were using such stickers without relevant identity cards. We have seized those vehicles and booked cases.”
Since the complete lockdown began on June 19, the police have prohibited the gathering of over five persons in public places and restricted the movement of vehicles, except for those under the exempted categories.
From June 19, the police installed checkpoints at over 280 places and seized vehicles from people loitering on roads. As of Saturday, the police have booked 1,05,432 cases for violation of prohibitory orders issued under Section 144 and seized 85,998 vehicles in the city.
Other violations
They booked 37,040 persons for failing to wear masks and maintain physical distancing. Meanwhile, 7,28,693 instances of violation were reported across the State since March 24 when the lockdown was first announced, according to a police release.
As many as 7,98,570 were arrested for violation and released immediately and 6,09,816 vehicles were seized from the violators and a fine of ₹16.96 crore was collected from them.