Two Indian nationals in Singapore sentenced to jail for breaching COVID-19 safety norms
SINGAPORE: Two Indian nationals in Singapore were on Tuesday sentenced to three weeks each in jail for breaching their mandatory COVID-19 quarantine period in a hotel here after returning from India.
Bojanki Suresh Naidu (37) and Bharati Tulshiram Choudhari (48) who are permanent residents in Singapore, pleaded to a charge of exposing others to the risk of infection while having reason to suspect they may have been carriers of COVID-19, The Straits Times reported.
Both of them had arrived in Singapore on March 14 during the height of the second wave of COVID-19 in India and breached their stay-home notice (SHN) in a hotel, a mandated safety measure against the deadly coronavirus.
The duo had arrived on the same flight from India and became acquainted as their rooms were both on the 16th floor of Oasia Hotel Novena, a designated SHN facility. When the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority investigated, the duo lied and attempted to portray that their meeting in the hotel was accidental.
Another charge for not wearing a mask was also taken into consideration for Suresh, a logistics lead with pharmaceutical company Novartis, during sentencing. District Judge Chay Yuen Fatt allowed both of them to defer their sentences so they could settle their personal affairs before going to jail.
Suresh will surrender himself on September 6, and Bharati on August 31, according to a Singapore Daily report. For breaching their SHNs and exposing others to the risk of infection, they could each have been jailed for up to six months and fined up to SGD 10,000 (USD 7,358).
Repeat offenders can be jailed for up to a year and fined up to SGD 20,000 (USD 14,716).