East Garo Hills (EGH) today filed a case against a group of vegetable vendors from near the village of Chiading after some irate vendors dumped their produce on the road when told to shut shop.
The incident allegedly took place after 1 pm, which is the official cut off time for shops to close owing to the Covid-19 lockdown. Permission for shops to remain open has been set between 8 am to 1 pm.
As per the order from the district administration, all vegetable, fish and meat shops are to operate between the stated timings after which a general curfew is imposed in the district.
As per police reports, yesterday at around 1 pm, as usual Chiading Police Station team were making their rounds to inform vegetable vendors to close at regular timing.
“After informing the vendors, the team proceeded towards Samanda for their duties. However on their return from Samanda the police team had found vegetables thrown around on the road suspiciously. This was very concerning,” informed superintendent of police, EGH, Bruno Sangma.
He added that the relations between the people of the area and the policemen were extremely cordial and as such the act was absolutely uncalled for.
Last week, the action of policemen in Tura left the force extremely red-faced leading to the department having to apologize and compensate a vegetable vendor whose produce had been thrown by policemen on the road.
However in the case of Chiading and the incident that happened, police ruled out any misdemeanour on their part.
“The matter was reported to me by the OC at about 1:30 pm after which I sent a team led by the DSP to inquire into the matter and find the truth. A case has also been registered. Further some people have been making misleading statements on social media on the matter and we have filed cases under IT for them,” added Bruno.
The SP added that they would get to the bottom of what happened and the perpetrators would be booked along with those spreading false news.