Ambulance driver ferries seven labourers in Rajkot, all 8 arrested

A team Rajkot taluka police ordered to stop the ambulance at Patidar Chowk on Ring Road-II on the outskirts of the city at around 5 am when it was coming from Metoda. The driver could not give a satisfactory reply as to why seven people were on board the ambulance.

“During further questioning, he confessed that four men and three women on board the ambulance were not patients but people working in a factory in GIDC and some working from home and that he was on his way to drop them to Paswala village in Una taluka for a fare of Rs 18,000,” police inspector Jayesh Dhola, in-charge of Rajkot taluka police station told The Indian Express.

Dhola said that the labourers wanted to return to their homes at Paswala village as the factory was closed.

The ambulance driver was identified as Akshaykumar Shah, a resident of Anklav in Anand district.

The passengers have been identified as Dhiru Parmar (45), his wife Malu (42), son Chetan (19), daughter Dharmishtha (21), Paresh Leva (26), Shailesh Leva (18) and Shailesh’s sister Varsha (21). They all were residing in Vrajbhumi Apartment at Metoda village where there is a GIDC estate also. Dhola said the men were working in a factory in Metoda GIDC while women used to make incense sticks.

Later in the day, an FIR was registered against the eight under IPC sections 269 (negligent act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life) and 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant).

“Primary interrogation has revealed that the ambulance driver went from Anklav to his father-in-law’s home in Navsari where one person hired his ambulance to ferry a pregnant woman from Ahedabad to Sanakhada village in Una taluka. Accordingly, from Navsari, he went to Ahmedabad and dropped the pregnant woman to Sanakhada. From Una, he was hired again to bring seven persons from Metoda to Paswala. He agreed and picked up passengers from Metoda,” Dhola said adding that the ambulance which bears a registration number of Anand district has been seized.

Rajkot district, which has been under lockdown since March 22, has so far registered 19 confirmed cases of COVID-19.