Malayalam Super Star Mammootty was not spared and booked by the Kerala police under the Epidemic Diseases Act for Covid-19 protocol violation at a private hospital in Kozhikode.
Actor, director, Ramesh Pisharody who was with Mammootty was also charged by the state police.The incident took place on Aug. 3 when Mammooty and Pisharody came to the hospital for the inauguration of robotic-assisted joint replacement surgery and the case was filed on Saturday.
Police said that around 300 people gathered near Mammootty at the hospital premises and that the function was conducted without maintaining Covid protocol. Elathur Police have collected videos and photographs of the event.
Top officials of the Hospital including its Managing Director and Chief Operating Officer were also charged by the police. Hospital authorities, however, said that there was no deliberate violation of norms but the presence of celebrities had evoked some unexpected responses from fans.
Speaker pulls up MLAs for not wearing mask properly
Kerala Assembly speaker M.B. Rajesh on Monday over the issue of not wearing mask properly despite the rapid spread of Covid-19 in the state. When law makers turn law breakers things are fine, but this is not applicable to the man on the street, he said.
The Speaker intervened when State Revenue Minister K. Rajan pointing out that CPI-M legislator A.N. Shamsheer seemed to have totally ignored the use of mask in the house.
"What I can see is, of late, many of you from both the sides are not properly wearing the mask. It must be noted that the proceedings of the house are being webcast and seeing without masks will send out a wrong message," said Rajesh.
Incidentally, there has been a huge public outcry in the manner in which the police officials are engaged in fining people for violation of Covid protocols, while the legislators are seen without properly wearing them in the House.
According to the statistics provided by the government, in the past four days, state police collected a fine of a staggering Rs 2.94 crore from 58,941 people for not wearing mask properly.
(With inputs from IANS)
