BMC staffer held for illegal quarantine exemption at airport

A BMC junior engineer deputed at the Mumbai international airport was arrested by Sahar police for allegedly illegally exempting travelers from mandatory institutional quarantine after taking money from them, a civic official said on Friday.

Junior engineer Dinesh Gawande has been suspended with immediate effect and a probe has been instituted, said a BMC release.

"The junior engineer and two others have been arrested in this connection by Sahar police," the BMC release added.

Since December 21 last year, the BMC has deployed its staff at the airport to ensure travelers coming from the United Kingdom, where a new strain had been detected, are placed in compulsory institutional quarantine.

The BMC said it alerted airport and CISF authorities after finding something amiss in the way quarantine exemption procedures were being applied, and it was a CISF probe that had zeroed in on Gawande.

The BMC then filed a complaint with Sahar police station and cash and two duplicate stamps were seized from the three, the civic statement informed.

So far, 49,362 passengers who arrived at Mumbai airport from UK and other countries have been placed under quarantine, it said.