Cops Attempt To Stop Mela In Jharkhand Village Amid COVID Surge, Attacked By Mob With Sticks & Stones

Many people were attending the mela in Jharkhand's Saraikela on Friday without following COVID norms. The attendees were seen with face masks and flouting social distancing norms, which could be a big risk amid the raging pandemic.

Screengrab from video

A local administration officer and several police personnel were britally attacked by a mob at a village in Jharkhand's Saraikela on Friday when the cops attempted to call off the ongoing mela owing to the rising Coronavirus cases. 

According to media reports, the officials had gone to the village to convince the organisers to stop the ongoing mela where hundreds of people had gathered. 

Many people were attending the gathering without following COVID norms. The attendees were seen with face masks and flouting social distancing norms, which could be a big risk amid the raging pandemic.

When the cops  tried to persuade the villagers to end the mela and asked the people to call off the gathering, the villagers lost cool and attacked the cops with stones and stones. 

Several videos of the incident are making rounds of the social media showing policemen running  towards their vehicles mela attendees threw stones and chased them with sticks. 

The incident came at the time when the entire country is facing  a deadlier second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Jharkhand on Friday reported 7,595 fresh cases of Coronavirus, pushing the  caseload of the state to 1,84,951. As many as 106 patients succumbed to the deadly disease in past 24 hours, taking the death toll to 1,715 on Friday.