New Delhi:
A 26-year-old man who was tested positive for the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) and home quarantined at his rented home in northeast Delhi’s West Karawal Nagar last week was found missing when a police team went to check on him on Sunday, senior police officers said.
When the police contacted the man, Ram Hari, on his mobile phone to know his whereabouts, he told them he had boarded an inter-state government bus and returned to his native home in Uttar Pradesh’s Maharajganj. A case has been registered against him for defying the government’s orders and the quarantine rule.
“We registered a first information report (FIR) against the man for violating home quarantine rules. Further probe is underway,” said deputy commissioner of police (northeast) Ved Prakash Surya.
When HT contacted Hari on his cellphone, he said his villagers did not allow him to enter the village and quarantined him at a local government hospital after they learnt that he was a Covid-19 patient.
He alleged that he had no choice but to return to his village because his landlord, whose name he did not remember, forced him to leave the house.
“My Covid-19 testing was done in the last week of May. I did not know that I was infected with the virus until some health officials came to my room and told me that my report came positive. They put a home quarantine notice outside the house and asked me to remain quarantined till further orders,” said Hari, who was working as a house-keeping staff at a private company in Delhi’s Daryaganj.
{{/usCountry}}“My Covid-19 testing was done in the last week of May. I did not know that I was infected with the virus until some health officials came to my room and told me that my report came positive. They put a home quarantine notice outside the house and asked me to remain quarantined till further orders,” said Hari, who was working as a house-keeping staff at a private company in Delhi’s Daryaganj.
{{/usCountry}}Hari said he had come to Delhi for a job on March 16, just eight days before the nationwide lockdown was announced. He shifted to the west Karawal Nagar rented room in May. When his landlord learnt about his Covid-19 testing report and the home quarantine notice, he asked him to leave the room, Hari alleged.
“I had nowhere to go and nobody was around to take care of me. I boarded a bus at Anand Vihar Bus terminal. My screening was done through a thermal scanner but they did not tell me my body temperature was high,” he said.
A police officer privy to the case said they will look into Hari’s allegations.
The case has been registered against him under section 3 of Epidemic Disease Act, and Indian Penal Code’s Sections 188 (Disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant), 269 (Negligent act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life), 270 (Malignant act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life), and 271 (Disobedience to quarantine rule).