BMC staffer held for illegal quarantine exemption at airport

A BMC junior engineer deputed atthe Mumbai international airport was arrested by Sahar policefor allegedly illegally exempting travelers from mandatoryinstitutional quarantine after taking money from them, a civicofficial said on Friday.

Junior engineer Dinesh Gawande has been suspended withimmediate effect and a probe has been instituted, said a BMCrelease.

''The junior engineer and two others have been arrestedin this connection by Sahar police,'' the BMC release added.

Since December 21 last year, the BMC has deployed itsstaff at the airport to ensure travelers coming from theUnited Kingdom, where a new strain had been detected, areplaced in compulsory institutional quarantine.

The BMC said it alerted airport and CISF authoritiesafter finding something amiss in the way quarantine exemptionprocedures were being applied, and it was a CISF probe thathad zeroed in on Gawande.

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

So far, 49,362 passengers who arrived at Mumbaiairport from UK and other countries have been placed underquarantine, it said.