New Delhi: The Uttarakhand Police on Saturday found 10 foreigners taking a stroll along side the river Ganga in Rishikesh. Since this was a clear violation of lockdown rules, the police made them pay for it – a novel punishment was given.

“I didn’t follow lockdown. I am sorry”, Foreigners were told to write this on a piece of paper for at least 500 times.

These foreigners hail from Israel, Australia, Mexico and some other European countries, the police said.

Uttarakhand: 10 foreign nationals who were caught strolling along the bank of river Ganga in Rishikesh were made to write “I didn’t follow lockdown rules, I am sorry’, for 500 times as a punishment for violating #CoronavirusLockdown. (12-4-2020) pic.twitter.com/vd3BJeoHm0

— ANI (@ANI) April 12, 2020

According to reports, the police was repeatedly getting reports that some foreigners were defying the lockdown and coming to the Ganga stretch from Neem Beach till Sai Ghat in Tapovan to chill.

A leading website also tweeted a video of the unique punishment handed out to the errant foreigners.

Foreign tourists made to write ‘I am sorry’ 500 times by police for strolling near Ganga in Rishikesh during #lockdown #CautionYesPanicNo #Coronavirus pic.twitter.com/Y3sDVCXdyk

— TOI Cities (@TOICitiesNews) April 13, 2020

Foreigners caught roaming in Rishikesk, penalised

“I told them that the relaxation is meant for people to buy essential items and not for venturing out without any reason to which they said they weren’t aware of that. I then asked one of my men to bring 50-60 blank pages from our check-post and gave five pages each to the 10 foreigners asking them to write ‘I did not follow the lockdown. I am sorry’ 500 times as punishment,” HT quoted Vinod Kumar, in-charge of the Tapovan police check post saying.

The daily reported that around 1500 foreign tourists were stranded across the state due to the lockdown. However, about 700 tourists were sent back to their countries with help from respective embassies in the last 15 days.