BENGALURU: Does fish come under essential services? This was one of the questions that stumped city police commissioner Kamal Pant during his 90-minute interaction with citizens through Twitter with the hashtag #Askcpblr on Saturday.
The person who shot the poser said he was taken to the police station for venturing out to buy fish during lockdown.
“I was made to stand in the verandah for three hours.
I was carrying fish and told the cops that they were essentials.
But they did not agree and I was threatened with dire consequences,” the netizen wrote.
The commissioner, who was caught unawares, told him to furnish more details so that an inquiry can be ordered into the incident.
Though cops maintained that they had no option but to crack down against those who roamed around without valid reasons during lockdown, several citizens have complained of high-handedness by a few cops on the pretext of enforcing lockdown rules.
Till now, city police have booked over 750 cases under the National Disaster Management Act (NDMA) and arrested 474 persons for violating lockdown norms.
Replying to a question on if traffic cops can click the pictures of the public, Pant said: “They have legal rights.
The act is called contactless enforcement.”