The Agra police on Sunday booked the father of a 25-year-old woman, for misleading authorities about the whereabouts of his daughter, who was then a suspected COVID-19 patient. This is India’s first FIR registered in connection with a coronavirus case.
The woman’s father, a railway official, has been charged under sections 269 (unlawfully or negligently spreading the infection of any disease dangerous to life) and 270 (malignantly does any act which is, and which he knows or has reason to believe to be, likely to spread the infection of any disease dangerous to life) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
The woman’s husband, Google India’s Bengaluru-based techie, had earlier tested positive for the virus. The couple had returned to Bengaluru from Italy after their honeymoon on March 8.
While media reports had claimed that the woman had escaped from a coronavirus quarantine facility and travelled to Agra, after she tested positive for COVID-19, Karnataka Medical Education Minister K. Sudhakar on Saturday clarified that the woman had indeed flown from Bengaluru, but had never left the airport.
The couple had reached Bengaluru Airport at 9:45 pm and the wife did not leave the airport and departed to Delhi at 1:40 am the next day on March 9 and reached at 4:25 am.
Health department officials in Agra informed of a woman who had returned from Bengaluru a couple of days ago, having tested positive for the COVID-19 and was kept in the isolation ward after her return.
However, it was reported that she left the ward without informing the doctors. The matter escalated when the lab report confirmed the infection.
On being asked about her whereabouts, her parents misinformed the authorities that she left for Delhi.
“They refused to cooperate with the medical team jeopardizing safety of several others,” Agra district magistrate PN Singh was quoted byThe New Indian Express.
The Central and state authorities were then alerted about the matter and later confirmed that the woman was in Agra itself. Health officials and police then reached the father’s house and brought all the suspects to isolation wards.
