Aligarh (Uttar Pradesh), Jul 13 (IANS): Congress Secretary Vivek Bansal, and 37 other party workers, have been booked by Aligarh police for allegedly violating prohibitory orders while staging a protest, two days ago, against inflation.

According to the police, the protests were held despite prohibitory orders enforced across the Uttar Pradesh due to the spike in Coronavirus cases.

The Congress leaders have, however, claimed that they had asked for permission.

The FIR also stated that they were found without face masks.

All of them have been booked under sections 269 (negligent act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life), 270 (malignant act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life) of the IPC, along with section 3 of the Epidemic Diseases Act and section 51(B) of the Disaster Management Act at the Quawarsi police station.

Bansal said that they had staged the protest to raise their voice against the electricity bills issued to commercial units, which were shut during the lockdown period. They had sought permission but did not receive any reply from the administration.

However, according to him, they had followed all precautions while holding the protests.