Daughter born, Delhi man bursts crackers, arrested

The man told police he was celebrating the birth of his daughter with his family. He works as a labourer and lives in an unauthorised colony in Chanakyapuri’s Tri Murti lane.

“We received a call about the incident around midnight. We went to the spot and found a man bursting firecrackers outside his house. We stopped him and booked him for violating the Supreme Court’s guidelines on firecrackers and noise pollution,” said Additional DCP-1 (New Delhi) Deepak Yadav.

Police said Gupta had been bursting crackers since 10.30 pm. Other people in the colony had asked him to stop but he didn’t, said police. “His wife delivered a baby in the morning. After the couple took the child home, Gupta went out and bought crackers,” said an officer.

Under the Supreme Court guidelines, only crackers with reduced emission and sound are permissible for use in Delhi. Any cracker which emits sound waves of more than 125 decibels within a 4-metre radius are banned for sale and use, said police.