Amid the countrywide lockdown due to Covid-19, the Gurugram Police on Thursday morning caught around 76 people including women and children attempting to travel in a canter to Gorakhpur and Maharaj Gunj in Uttar Pardesh from Ludhiana, Punjab.
Police said that the canter, which had a Punjab number, was caught from Kundli-Manesar-Palwal (KMP) Expressway on Thursday morning.
Those who were arrested have been identified as Guru Charan, Harvinder Singh and Guru Sewak. All are residents of Ludhiana, Punjab.
"The culprits told the passengers that they had curfew pass and they would drop them at their destinations at Uttar Pradesh without any hassle. The deal was fixed at Rs 2,000 for each passenger but they took Rs 1,000 from each passenger by putting pressure on the way,” said Preet Pal Sangwan, ACP (crime).
When they reached on the KMP Expressway, police signalled them to stop but the canter driver stopped at a distance of about 50-60 meters before a police check-post and rode away from the spot leaving the vehicle behind. Police checked the canter and found all of them inside it.
Later the culprits were arrested from Mehrauli-Gurugram (MG) road.
The police registered a case against the drive and his companion under relevant sections of the IPC including the Disaster Management Act at the Farrukhnagar police station.
"After the lockdown, several reports came which stated that some people are using Ambulance for transporting vehicles across the border following which police have strengthened its vigil on bordering areas and continuous checking of vehicles are going on," Sangwan said.
All 76 people were sent to quarantine centre at Manesar and the civic authorities were requested to provide essentials goods to them considering the lockdown, he said.
The Gurugram Police on April 16 had caught twelve people who were travelling in two ambulances which were going to Bihar. A case was registered against two ambulance drives and helpers.