The group from different points had converged on the walkway at Panampilly Nagar, a major residential hub in the city.

Venturing out of home in the early morning hours in violation of the lockdown may help fool the police on the ground but not their drone watching from the sky is a lesson that 39 persons, including two women, out for a walk, learned the hard way on Saturday.

The group from different points had converged on the walkway at Panampilly Nagar, a major residential hub in the city, in violation of the social distancing ordered to check the spread of the pandemic when South Police aided by the drone descended there and arrested all of them around 6.15 a.m.

They were taken to the police station and slapped with charges under IPC Sections 188 (Disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant) and 269 (Negligent act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life) and relevant provisions of the Epidemic Diseases Ordinance passed last month allowing the State government to take special measures and frame regulations to tackle an epidemic disease. Later, all of them were released on bail.

“They were detected by the drone even before and were repeatedly warned against violating the lockdown. But they kept on dishing out lame excuses like they were not aware of the restrictions. So, we chose to take action against them when they defied the directions again,” said G. Poonguzhali, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Law and Order).

For a week now, the city police has been carrying out surveillance using a drone allocated to them by the State police headquarters for the better enforcement of the lockdown.