ALAPPUZHA/MALAPPURAM: A 54-year-old man hailing from Kayamkulam, who had jumped quarantine, has been put back in compulsory self-isolation for a period of 28 days. Besides, he was booked under the Kerala Epidemic Disease Ordinance 2020 for violating the quarantine order. According to the Kayamkulam police, he had attended the Tablighi Jamaat meeting in New Delhi. It was on his return that the man was first quarantined for 14 days which he completed.
“The health department had earlier tested his swab sample which turned out to be negative. But violating the curbs on inter-district travel, he drove down to Kalikavu in Malappuram to visit a woman who is allegedly his concubine. After the people in Kalikavu got wind of his arrival, they tipped off health officials about his Tablighi links. Subsequently, he was put in 14-day home quarantine again. But he ventured out of his home early on Monday before the isolation period got over,” an officer said.
“It was during the health department’s monitoring of quarantined people it emerged that he had fled home. And this was passed on to the district administration in Alappuzha. Based on the district medical officer’s direction, we took him into custody from home,” they said. On getting back home, he reportedly had a major fight with his wife over the Malappuram visit. “The fact that the person in Malappuram is the ‘other woman’ in his life led to the heated argument. It was to avoid landing in the police net that he chose to travel during the early hours,” the police said.
Meanwhile, Kalikavu police said the person had arrived at Mampattumoola on April 20 to see the woman whom they insist is his wife from second marriage. Factoring in his participation in the Tablighi conclave in Nizamuddin, the health department had directed him to stay in 14-day home quarantine at Mampattumoola. But the person returned to Alappuzha without completing the home quarantine. Officers said they immediately informed their counterparts in Alappuzha after they came to know about the breach of home quarantine.