Coronavirus: FIR against Dubai returnee after she visits supermarket

A 23-year-old woman, who returned from Dubai and was ordered to remain in home quarantine, has been booked after she was found visiting a supermarket.

Police said the Vijayanagar resident had been to Dubai in December and returned to Bengaluru on March 22. Police visited her home, affixed the home quarantine stamp on her and asked her not to step out. But the woman visited a Reliance Fresh store on Monday.

“We registered an FIR against her under IPC sections 269 (negligent act like to spread the infection of disease dangerous to life), 270 (malignant act likely to spread the infection of disease dangerous to life) and 271 (disobedience to quarantine rule) we traced her and contacted and warned her to stay at home. We are also consulting senior officers and health officers on whether we have to send her to the government quarantine centre or not,” police said.

The Department of Health and Family Welfare said three persons who violated the home quarantine advice had been apprehended and isolated. A woman under home quarantine found loitering around the Lakshmidevamma Block, and two people who returned from Australia and were found loitering on Halasuru Main Channel Road have been taken to the designated government quarantine facility.

Bengaluru police commissioner Bhaskar Rao had warned those under home quarantine to stay put in the interest of the public or face arrest and time at the quarantine facility. A 70-year-old doctor who returned from London on March 19 had similarly defied home quarantine guidelines and gone for a walk at the Kuvempu Stadium in Basaveshwara Nagar at 6.30 am on Tuesday. Noticing the home quarantine stamp on his hand, people alerted the police who warned him not to violate the guidelines.

A senior police official said: “We also found a man with home quarantine stamp going to the airport in a cab with five of his family members. When questioned by police, he said he was going to his native place in West Bengal and showed the air tickets. Police took down his details and allowed him to go.”