12 booked for heckling health official

Thoothukudi district police have booked 12 persons for heckling a health official when he tried to take family members of a COVID-19 positive patient for isolation near Kayathar on Saturday.

The move came after a video of a group of men heckling the health inspector and a vehicle driver went viral on social media.

Tension started when the family members were being escorted by the official into a vehicle. A group of men began to shout and tug at him and the driver. “When the health inspector took photographs of the family members being taken into the vehicle for the record, the locals got agitated,” a police source said.

Hence, the vehicle had to leave without them. Later in the day, police officials pacified the villagers and the family members were taken to the government hospital at Kovilpatti. They were now under home quarantine and monitoring.

“We have arrested six out of the 12 persons for preventing the official from discharging his duty,” Superintendent of Police Arun Balagopalan said.

They were booked under various IPC sections and the provisions of Epidemic Diseases Act 1897 and the Disaster Management Act.

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