One arrested for organizing ‘garba’ at Dumas beach

Surat: Police arrested a 32-year-old dance teacher for allegedly arranging a ‘garba’ session at the Dumas beach. More than 20 people participated in the session and none of them wore a mask and social distancing was also not maintained.
The offence against Bharat Sarvaiya, a resident of Mora Bhagal area, was registered at the Dumas police station after a video of people performing ‘garba’ at the beach went viral on social media. The ‘garba’ session was organized on Sunday when thousands of visitors were present at the beach.
Sarvaiya was booked for violation of sections of Epidemic Disease Act and Indian Penal Code for not maintaining social distance and not wearing a mask. Sarvaiya runs a ‘garba’ class known as Rhythm Group and he went to Dumas on Sunday with 16 of his students. Initially, they were dancing to the tunes of music played on a bluetooth speaker and later started doing ‘garba’.
The video was shared with the logo of Rhythm group and was also posted on their social media pages. On Sunday multiple videos of Dumas went viral in which thousands of people were seen enjoying the environment at the beach. Most of them were seen without a mask and violating social distancing norms.
“It seems it was a spontaneous move by the group. Since they were not wearing masks and no social distancing was maintained, police registered an offence and the accused was arrested,” said a police officer at Dumas police station.
Meanwhile, police started an investigation into another viral video of a birthday celebration. In the video an unidentified youth is seen cutting a cake with a huge knife while his friends were cheering for him. The video is shot on a road near Magdalla cross road. “Police are working to identify the persons in the video,” said a police officer.