Agartala, April 27: Police detained 31 people, including 19 women of a marriage party in Tripura for violating night curfew and other Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), enforced to curb the alarming rise of the Covid-19 pandemic, officials said on Tuesday.

Tripura Chief Secretary Manoj Kumar, in an order, imposed a corona night curfew in the Agartala Municipal Corporation area from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. from Thursday onwards.

The order said that in closed spaces, a maximum of 50 per cent of the seating or hall capacity should be allowed for any social, cultural, entertainment or political gathering with a ceiling of 100 persons while in open spaces, higher numbers may be allowed based on the size of the ground with a ceiling of 200 persons.

District and police officials said that after getting the information of the violation of the night curfew regulations and SOPs, the West Tripura District Magistrate and Collector Shailesh Kumar Yadav raided two marriage halls in the city where a large number of people comprising men, women and children attended the marriage parties late on Monday night.

On the directions of the DM, police detained 31 people including 19 women for violating the government orders while many others fled when police resorted to a mild lathi-charge.

However, all 31 people subsequently released from the West Agartala police station.

Yadav told the media that a section of policemen hand in glove with the marriage parties allowed holding the ceremonies blatantly violating the government orders.

“All these people are highly educated but they do not follow the norms amidst the alarming rise of the coronavirus. These people on the other hand would accuse the government that the authorities are doing nothing.

I also suggest suspending the Officer-in-charge of the West Agartala police station,” the IAS officer stated.

Meanwhile, some people including two ruling Bharatiya Janata Party MLAs blamed the DM for his alleged high-handedness while enforcing the government orders.

“The DM physically harassed and abused the priests of the marriage ceremony, bridegroom and others,” BJP legislator Sushant Chowdhury said on his social media posts.