Even after mid-day’s expose on the harassment faced by citizens from BMC marshals implementing mask rules in the city, the high-handedness continues unabated and civic officials remain tight-lipped on the issue. While citizens flood social media with complaints, some more cases of marshals threatening people and extorting money have come to the fore. A couple of days back, some marshals abused and assaulted an NRI, his sister and some women friends near the Gateway Of India. Though the man has complained to the BMC’s Disaster Management Cell and Mumbai Police, no action has been taken.

Pratik Raval, who is a resident of Malad and works as a manager in a five-star hotel in Sydney, had gone to a restaurant in South Mumbai with some of his friends and sister on December 19 when the incident happened. Five marshals – three women and two men – approached them outside the restaurant, as they were not wearing masks. The marshals abused them and extorted money from them by threatening to call the cops.