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(Inputs from Bengaluru)

AGRA: A day after a Bengaluru-based techie’s wife tested positive for Covid-19 at Aligarh medical college and was put in an isolation ward while her family members were quarantined, Agra district magistrate Prabhu N Singh has recommended an FIR against the family for “misleading health officials”.The 25-year-old, who had recently come back from Europe before her husband tested positive on March 12, took a flight to New Delhi and then a train to reach Agra on March 9. She did not know of her husband’s infection when she traveled from Bengaluru.“An FIR will be lodged against them under IPC sections 269 (negligent act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life) and 270 (malignant act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life),” the DM told TOI on Saturday. “Besides, a letter has been sent to the divisional railway manager (DRM) recommending departmental action against the woman’s father, a railway engineer,” he said.The DM told TOI he got an alert from Bengaluru on March 12, on the day the techie tested positive, about the presence of the woman, a Covid-19 suspect, in Agra.He sent a health team to the woman’s house where her father misled them about her whereabouts. “The family lied to us about her whereabouts, saying she had left for Delhi by train, from where she will board a flight for Bengaluru. They refused to cooperate with the medical team jeopardising safety of several others,” Singh said.The DM had to then get in touch with the joint secretary, the central government, and also secretary, state government, and make use of police intelligence to trace the woman, a letter in possession of TOI said.However, after checking records of the train from the DRM’s office, it came to light that the woman had never boarded it. The police intelligence then confirmed the woman’s presence in Agra. That’s when the health official along with a police team reached the house of the woman’s father and brought all the suspects to the isolation wards. Karnataka medical education minister Dr K Sudhakar refuted UP officials’ claim that the woman had fled Bengaluru on March 7, saying that her husband tested positive only on March 12. TOI’s Friday report was based on UP officials’ statements.Javaid Akthar, Karnataka additional chief secretary, health and family welfare, said, “Hiding travel details, not adhering to the home isolation for 14 days after returning from affected countries is both morally and legally wrong.” Sudhakar added, “...Let them take treatment at the isolation ward and recover. They are psychologically perturbed too. Once they are discharged from the hospital, they can be further enquired about. We should not scare people.”According to government sources, the woman took an IndiGo flight from Bengaluru early on March 9 and landed in Delhi at 4:25 am. She boarded Gatimaan Express from Hazrat Nizamuddin railway station in Delhi and reached Agra by 9:50 am.“Three special teams have been formed for contact surveillance. One team will trace her co-passengers in Gatimaan Express, the second her father’s neighbours and the third team will screen her father’s railway colleagues,” the DM said.Sources informed TOI that another team is working with the airline to contact passengers who travelled beside the woman to the national capital from Bengaluru on March 8.Agra chief medical officer Mukesh Kumar Vats said, “On Mach 12, we were alerted about the woman’s presence in Agra and she was taken to the district hospital for her blood and other sample collection. The same evening, the woman went away from the hospital, even though the doctors on duty explained to her and her family that since her husband had tested positive, she is most likely to have got infected.”Meanwhile, the woman’s parents and six other family members tested negative on Saturday. The doctors in AMU have decided to test her again on Sunday.