In a bid to contain Covid-19 spread in the city, the Mumbai Police issued fresh prohibitory orders on Wednesday which bans the gathering of five or more people at a place under Section 144 of Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC).
The prohibitory orders, which are a part of Maharashtra government's curfew-like restrictions on public movement across the state for the next 15 days, will come into effect from Wednesday 8pm till 7am on May 1.
The orders issued by Deputy Commissioner of Police (Operations) Chaitanya S, states that all establishments, public places, activities, services, shall remain closed and nobody will visit public places without a valid reason. The services and activities mentioned in essential categories are, however, exempted from the order during the period. "They are also exempted from 7 am to 8 pm on working days and their movement and operations will remain unrestricted," the order stated.
The order reads if any person is found violating the order, they are liable to be booked and punished under section 188 of the IPC along with Epidemic Diseases Act and the National Disaster Management Act. According to the order, divisional ACPs, zonal DCPs and regional additional commissioners of police are empowered to grant exemption or permission in case of emergency and/or a special case.
Police have appealed to the citizens to follow the orders diligently and maintain social distancing norms at all times, while using face masks and observe the directions of the state government issued to prevent the spread of coronavirus. Hemant Nagrale, Commissioner of Police, said, "It is time for us to take care of ourselves and this is our only option. We should stress for social distancing, maintain cleanliness and do regular sanitization, while always using a face mask."