Mumbai, Dec 22: Thirty four persons including cricketer Suresh Raina and Bollywood celebrity Sussanne Khan were held after a raid at a posh club near the Mumbai airport on Tuesday for violating social distancing norms, police said.
Thirteen women who were among those held were allowed to leave after being served notices while the men were shown as arrested and granted bail later, police said.
The raid took place at the Dragonfly Experience club near the Mumbai international airport at around 3 am, police said, adding the 34 also included seven staffers of the club.
They were booked under sections 188 (Disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant), 269 (whoever unlawfully or negligently does any act which is, and which he knows or has reason to believe to be, likely to spread the infection of any disease dangerous to life), and 34 (Acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of IPC, police said.
"Party (Nahin) Chalegi Till Six In The Morning! A raid was conducted at a nightclub in Andheri at around 3 am, for flouting COVID prevention norms. Action has been initiated against 34 people, out of which 19 were from Delhi & Punjab, including some celebrities #NewNormal," Mumbai Police tweeted.
The raid was conducted after the club establishment remained open beyond the permissible time limit and did not adhere to coronavirus norms, police said.
"Suresh was in Mumbai for a shoot which extended to late hours and was invited by a friend for a quick dinner post the same prior to him taking his flight back to Delhi. He was not aware of the local timings and protocols," a statement on behalf of Raina said.
"Once pointed out, he immediately complied with the procedures laid out by the authorities and regrets the unfortunate and unintentional incident. He always holds rules and laws laid down by governing bodies with the highest regard and will continue to do so in the future as well," it said.
Party (Nahin) Chalegi Till Six In The Morning!
— Mumbai Police (@MumbaiPolice) December 22, 2020
A raid was conducted at a nightclub in Andheri at around 3 am, for flouting COVID prevention norms
Action has been initiated against 34 people, out of which 19 were from Delhi & Punjab, including some celebrities #NewNormal
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New Delhi (PTI): Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday said the Opposition is protesting for the right to vote for every Indian and demanded a "clean and pure" voter list, asserting that the issue of alleged irregularities pointed out by him will "explode" soon as it is not related to a single constituency but the whole country.
Indicating that he would not submit a signed affidavit as sought by the Election Commission, Gandhi asserted that the data analysed by the Congress to provide "proof" of "vote theft" is taken from the EC website.
"This is their data. It is not my data that I should sign. It is their data only and has been taken from their website. This is only a move to distract," he told reporters.
The Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha, who participated in a protest march by the opposition on the "vote theft" issue, said the Election Commission is "silent" as the truth is before the entire nation after his charge that over one lakh votes in an assembly constituency in Karnataka were found to be fake in a research conducted by his party.
"Another thing I want to tell is that this has not just happened in Bangalore, but in different constituencies across the country, and the Election Commission knows this. The EC knows that this data will explode. What it is trying to control and hide, we will bring it out, and it will explode. The EC knows this," he told reporters.
Gandhi was briefly detained along with others as police stopped the protest march by opposition MPs from Parliament House to the EC office.
"They (EC) cannot talk as the truth is before the entire nation," the Congress leader said as he was being taken away in a bus by the police.
"This fight is not political, but for saving the Constitution," he asserted.
This fight is for 'one man, one vote' and we want a clean, pure voter list," the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha added.
He said all the MPs of the INDIA alliance were stopped and taken into custody when they were going to meet the Election Commission.
"The truth of 'vote theft' is now before the country. This fight is not political; it is a fight to protect democracy, the Constitution, and the right to ‘one person, one vote’.
"The united opposition and every voter in the country demand a clean and transparent voter list. And, we will secure this right at all costs," Gandhi claimed in a post on X later.
Gandhi had on Thursday cited data from the 2024 Lok Sabha polls to claim that over 1 lakh votes were "stolen" through five types of manipulation in Mahadevapura assembly segment in Karnataka. He alleged there were 11,965 duplicate voters, 40,009 with fake and invalid addresses, 10,452 bulk voters or single-address voters, 4,132 voters with invalid photos and 33,692 voters misusing Form 6 of new voters.