A case has been filed in Agra against the father-in-law of the Google techie in Bengaluru who was tested positive for coronavirus after the former was accused of ‘misleading’ the medical team about his daughter’s whereabouts. The FIR was registered a day after a viral media report said that the techie’s wife ‘fled’ coronavirus quarantine in Bengaluru – which the Karnataka government then said was false. The techie's family has also stated that she never fled quarantine and was already in Agra when her husband tested positive in Bengaluru on March 12.
The FIR filed against the woman’s father states that when a medical team had collected her samples on March 12, after her husband was found positive, her sample was found to be 'highly suspicious,' and so the medical team reached her father's residence a day later, on March 13 as well. Her father then allegedly told them that his daughter had already left Agra and had caught a flight back to Bengaluru via Delhi. However, the medical team felt that she could still be in Agra, and officials say they tracked her through surveillance and her location was found to be Agra itself.
The Agra police have now filed a case under Sections 269 (act likely to spread the infection of any disease dangerous to life) and Section 270 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).
Also, it has now been confirmed that the woman too has tested positive for COVID-19.
The woman had at first gone to the hospital on March 12, after her husband tested positive in Bengaluru. However, the hospital they were taken to was unhygienic and the isolation ward was extremely dirty, her family and friends, too, have stated. She raised the issue and was allowed to go by the doctor, who asked her and the entire family to be on home quarantine. However, officials wanted to bring her back to the hospital on March 13, which is when the father allegedly said that she was not in Agra.
The couple had returned from a honeymoon in Greece and come to Mumbai, from where they reached Bengaluru on March 8. On March 9, his wife went back to her native place in Agra via Delhi. Four days after she reached Agra, on March 12, her husband tested positive for coronavirus.
The brother of the techie spoke to TNM and said that the family was under tremendous pressure.
*A patient’s identity is not revealed by the government for privacy reasons. Some patients choose to make a public declaration of their health status.