South Goa: Over 17,000 lockdown violations booked, nearly Rs 75 lakh netted in fines

Margao: The South Goa police has intensified its crackdown on people found moving about in public places without the mandatory face masks and those spitting in public places during the lockdown period.

A total of 12,180 cases were booked against violators for not wearing mask until Saturday at all police stations and a further 5,213 persons were booked for spitting.

A total of 393 cases have been booked so far under section 188 of the Cr PC for violating section 144, unlawful assembly, of the CrPc and an amount of nearly Rs 75 lakhs netted in by way of fines.

South Goa has a total 17 police stations across five divisions - Margao, Quepem, Vasco, Ponda and Konkan Railway. At 1,485 cases, Vasco police station booked the maximum number of violators for failure to wear face masks, followed by Ponda with 1,353 cases and Verna with 1,324 cases. Mormugao police station topped the list for cases booked for spitting in public places - 1,334 - followed by Verna with 1,155 cases and Curchorem with 635 cases. The highest amount of fines – Rs 11.3 lakh - was collected by the Ponda police station, followed by Verna police station with Rs 8.8 lakh.

Ponda police station recorded the highest number of arrests for violating lockdown rules with 137 people taken into custody under section 188 of Code of Criminal Procedure. Altogether, 833 people have been arrested across the district for violating the prohibitory orders.

The Margao sub-division, consisting of Margao town, Maina Curtorim, Colva and Cuncolim police stations, topped the list with 157 cases booked during the lockdown period and 250 arrests. Further, 99 vehicles were seized and Rs 26 lakh collected as fines at all four police stations.

Altogether 102 cases were booked by all four police stations coming under the jurisdiction of the Quepem sub-division, consisting of Quepem, Curchorem, Sanguem and Canacona police stations. A total of 193 people were arrested, 82 vehicles seized and fines worth Rs 13.1 lakh collected.

At the Vasco sub-division consisting of Vasco, Verna, Mormugao, Vasco Railway and Dabolim airport police stations, 86 cases were booked, 239 people arrested, 74 vehicles seized and fines aggregating Rs 21.5 lakh collected at all the five police stations. At the Ponda and Collem police stations, coming under the Ponda sub division, 48 cases were booked, 151 people arrested, 23 vehicles seized and Rs 13.3 lakh collected as fines, data released by the South Goa police revealed.