UP: 25 booked for defying lockdown in Aligarh

Twenty-five people have been booked for violating lockdown imposed to control COVID-19 spread by attending congregational prayers at a mosque here and then resorting to brick-batting when police was trying to disperse them, a police official said on Friday.

"The incident took place at Takiya Wali Masjid at Sarai Rehman locality under Bannadevi on Thursday night. Twenty-five people were booked in this connection," Circle officer Pankaj Srivastava said.

Despite the nationwide lockdown, some people had collected at a mosque to offer namaz, he said.

On reaching the spot, police said they announced on loudspeakers that the group which had gathered inside the mosque should immediately disperse.

The Imam of the mosque was taken to the police station, they said.

According to police, the group of people who had collected started brick-batting at them in which at least two policemen were injured.

Police, however, managed to defuse the situation. Three persons have been taken into custody in this connection, they said.

Meanwhile, police have intensified checking in different parts of the district, following reports that some people who had attended the Tablighi Jamaat congregation in Delhi's Nizamuddin last month belonged to this district.