Coronavirus: Bengaluru-based Google techie's father-in-law booked under Epidemic Act

The wife and father-in-law of Google India's Bangalore-based COVID-19 infected employee were on Sunday booked under the Epidemic Disease Act 1897 for allegedly lying to the health officials about the infection.

The wife of the techie was admitted to the railway hospital's isolation ward and her sample was sent for testing. She, however, managed to slip away even before her lab report reached the authorities and allegedly hid at her parental home in Agra.

The couple had visited Greece and returned to India in the first week of March.

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The father-in-law, who was a railway officer, allegedly misled the health officials, when they asked about his daughter and told them that she had gone to Bangalore.

The father-in-law finally revealed the truth, when the authorities called the police.

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The wife, who also later tested positive for the virus, had reached Delhi from Bangalore by air and from there she took the Gatiman Express train to go to Agra.

The officials were trying to trace the passengers, who were in same coach in which the lady travelled.

''We have booked them under the Epidemic Disease Act 1897,'' said a police official in Agra. They have also been charged under sections 269 and 270 of the IPC that pertained to unlawful and negligent act that could spread the infection. They could be jailed for six months to two years and also fined if proven guilty.

The Epidemic Diseases Act had been passed in 1897 for the purpose of checking the spread of “dangerous epidemic diseases”. The Act came into being in the wake of the bubonic plague epidemic that had struck Bombay in 1896.