Arbaaz, Sohail Khan booked for violating COVID-19 norm

Actor brothers Arbaaz Khan and Sohail Khan, and the latter's son Nirvaan Khan, were booked by the Mumbai Police on Monday for allegedly violating the COVID-19 institutional quarantine norms, civic and police officials said.

The Khan trio was asked to stay at a hotel in suburban Bandra after they returned to Mumbai from the United Arab Emirates in the penultimate week of December last year as per guidelines, but they went to their homes instead, a civic official said.

The case was registered against them under Section 188 (Disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant) and 269 (Negligent act likely to spread infection of disease) of the Indian Penal Code and under provisions of the Epidemic Diseases Act, a Khar police station official said.

As per the Standard Operating Procedures of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, passengers returning from countries in Europe and the Middle East must stay in institutional quarantine for seven days in view of the detection of the new strain of coronavirus in the United Kingdom.

In his statement submitted in Khar police station in Mumbai, Dr Sanjay Funde, a medical officer of H/West ward, said that he received information on Monday that Arbaaz, Sohail and Nirvaan had returned from Dubai but didn't go to institutional quarantine.

Dr Funde and Bandra police officials then reached Sohail Khan's residence on Nargis Dutt Road in Bandra.

They were told by Sohail Khan that he and Arbaaz Khan had returned from Dubai on December 25 while Nirvaan Khan flew back on December 30, a police official said quoting Dr Funde's statement.

Sohail Khan also told BMC officials that they had booked rooms in a five-star hotel in Bandra for quarantine stay, but decided to go home after their tests at the Mumbai airport confirmed that they were not infected with coronavirus, the official said.