A day after testing positive for the novel coronavirus, Imran Pasha, Padarayanapura ward corporator was booked on Saturday, by the Bengaluru Police for violating social distancing norms while he was being shifted to Victoria hospital.
In a video doing the rounds on social media, Pasha can be seen waving and greeting people outside the ambulance and touching the feet of an elderly woman after getting off the ambulance.
Banglore Padrayanapur JDS Coroporator Imran Pasha celebrating with huge crowd after getting tested Positive for Corona. pic.twitter.com/eGJkOAijte
— ವಾ ಲಿ Wali (@netaji3210) May 31, 2020
‘Despite knowing that he has been infected with Covid-19, the corporator had behaved irresponsibly and had moved around in public, which is very dangerous to others. We will take action against him after he is discharged from the hospital,’ a police officer from Jagajeevanram Nagar police station was quoted by The Indian Express.
The incident attracted a lot of criticism on social media. Some locals also alleged the corporator refused to leave for the hospital.
Pasha has since clarified that being a public representative, he would never act irresponsibly.
An FIR has been filed by the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) health officials against the JD(S) corporator and his supporters who gathered outside.
They have been booked under sections 269 (negligent act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life) and 270 (negligent act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life) 271 (disobedience of quarantine rule) of the Indian Penal Code and the provisions of the National Disaster Management Authority Act.
Padarayanapura ward is one of the containment zones in Bengaluru with almost 67 cases up till Saturday, and was sealed right at the beginning of the lockdown.
The ward made headlines in April after residents, who were secondary contacts of a patient who died of the COVID-19 infection that time, refused to accompany the BBMP team to undergo institutional quarantine, and allegedly vandalised the barricades put up by police.
More than 54 people were arrested by the police after the incident.
