New Car Not New Anymore! Kerala Man Takes Car For Joyride Amid Covid-19 Lockdown, Gets Thrashed

Getting your dream car delivered is always an exciting moment and the first thing you want to do when it happens is to take it for a spin. This is exactly what TH Riyaz, a native of Kasargod district in Kerala also wanted to do.

But unfortunately for him, his new car was delivered by the dealer just before the country went into lockdown last week to stop the spread of Covid-19. So he waited for days until it reached a point where he could not hold it back anymore.

And on Monday afternoon Riyaz took his yet to be registered, Maruti Swift for a joyride from his hometown in Alambadi. On the way, he was intercepted by the police for breaking the lockdown norms but he sped away from the scene and reached Maloor in neighboring Kannur district.

By then the news about a man travelling from Kasaragod, which is the worst-hit district in Kerala due to Covid-19 had also spread. At Maloor, a group of locals blocked the road and caught hold of Riyaz. What followed was something that Riyaz could not even have imagined, he was manhandled and his hands and legs were tied up by the angry locals who also inflicted considerable damage to his new car.

The local police were quick to intervene and rescued Riyaz before the situation got out of control. The cops have also booked Riyaz for overspeeding and breaking the lockdown restrictions.

The incident in Kannur is yet another example of how a large section of our society is yet to understand the magnitude of the crisis in front of them and finds trivial excuses to break the lockdown and social isolation, putting themselves and others at risk of contracting the viral infection that has brought the world to its knees.

The situation in Kasargod is particularly worrying as the district which has the highest number of Covid-18 cases in Kerala is on the verge of Community transmission. Kasargod alone accounts for 107 of the 234 Covid-19 cases reported in the state.

While there is no indication of community transmission yet, the threat is real after a man who had recently returned from Dubai tested positive for Covid-19. Before he tested positive for the infection, he had broken the self-quarantine norms and attended several public gatherings when he came into contact with over 1000 people including two MLAs.

The huge spike in the number of cases in Kasargod had also forced neighboring Karnataka to close its boundaries with Kerala.