SDMC councillor’s husband booked for ‘misleading’ police, man claims political conspiracy

Santosh Shokeen is the South Delhi Municipal Corporation’s councillor from Nangli Sakrawati municipal ward.

The police on Friday booked south corporation councillor Santosh Shokeen’s husband, saying that despite being tested positive for Covid-19 and infecting two family members (including the councillor) , he misled authorities about having visited the cheadquarters in Nizamuddin last month. The man, Sukhbir Shokeen has denied the claims, and labelled the charges a “political conspiracy”. He tested positive for Covid-19 on April 1.

A Delhi Police personnel screen commuters for identity cards on day seventeen of the 21-day nationwide lockdown to curb the spread of coronavirus, in New Delhi. (Sanchit Khanna/HT PHOTO)

A case under the Epidemic Diseases Act and sections 188 (Disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant), 269 (Negligent act likely to spread infection of disease danger­ous to life) of the Indian Penal Code has been registered against him at Chhawla police station.

Santosh Shokeen is the South Delhi Municipal Corporation’s councillor from Nangli Sakrawati municipal ward.

The six-storey headquarters of the Tablighi Jamaat has emerged as the biggest hot spot for Covid-19 across the country, after a March congregation attended by hundreds of foreigners (some infected) and a few thousand Indians has been identified as the source of several infections around the country.

Shokeen’s family lives in Deenpur village, which is among the 23 areas in the city that have been declared “containment zones” by the Delhi government after cases of the contagious virus surfaced in those neighbourhoods.

Deputy commissioner of police (Dwarka) Anto Alphonse said the village was declared a containment zone after Shokeen and two of his family members were tested positive for Covid-19. A kilometre-wide radius around the village has been sealed completely.

“The man (Shokeen) was placed in home quarantine by health authorities around two weeks ago. He was not home when a physical verification of people in home quarantine was being carried out. When questioned later, he hid the facts about his past travel and movements,” read a statement released by the Delhi Police on Friday.

A police officer said that after Shokeen’s medical tests confirmed he had Covid-19, he was shifted to a hospital.

Later, two of his family members also tested positive. Since the health and police authorities were not able to ascertain how the man got infected with the disease, his cellphone’s call detail records were analysed, and the location data tracked, the officer said.

“The technical investigation confirmed his visit to the Tablighi Jamaat congregation at Nizamuddin. But the man withheld this fact during the repeated medical and police enquiries,” Alphonse said.

However, inn a phone call with Hindustan Times, Sukhbir Shokeen — who is being treated at Ambedkar Hospital in Rohini — claimed he has never visited the Tablighi Jamaat’s headquarters at Nizamuddin.

“I’m a practising Hindu. I have no connection with the Markaz and I have never been there. It is a political conspiracy as my wife is the only Congress councillor from among the 25 municipal wards in Najafgarh zone. I’m being framed.”

Shokeen said he has been distributing food and essential items to needy people in his ward, ever since the lockdown. “I have been travelling to different areas. I could have contracted the infection from anywhere. I got my test done from a private laboratory, and got admitted to the hospital on April 1 after testing positive. My wife and daughter have also tested positive and are recovering in hospital.”