Clarion India
NEW DELHI –Can a person get infected by novel coronavirus by speaking on phone to an Affected person? This is an innocuous question, but it landed a journalist behind the bars. Zubair Ahmed, was arrested by Andaman and Nicobar Police, on Monday, simply because he raised a question with regard to action of the police on the COVID patient on Twitter.
.“Can someone explain why families are placed under home quarantine for speaking over phone with Covid patients? @MediaRN_ANI @Andaman_Admin,” tweeted Zubair.
Can someone explain why families are placed under home quarantine for speaking over phone with Covid patients? @MediaRN_ANI @Andaman_Admin
— Zubair Ahmed (@zubairpbl) April 26, 2020
Though an innocuous query, the tweet drew lot of ire from the local police. So much so that they called up Zubair asking him as to why he raised the question in a public domain. He was directed to come on the Aberdeen police station which is 40 km away from the village where he lives.
Zubair expressed his inability to be physically present at the police station due to the lockdown as his village falls under the red zone.
The same day, after iftar (evening breakfast), a police officer visited him at his house and took him to the Aberdeen police station. At the police station, he was arrested, and his mobile phone was seized from him. He was booked under several sections of the Disaster Management Act including some non-bailable offences.
The charges levelled against Zubair are: Section 51 (punishment for obstruction) of the Disaster Management Act, and Sections 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant), 269 (negligent act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life), 270 (malignant act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life), and 505(1)(b) (whoever makes, publishes or circulates any statement, rumour or report with intent to cause fear or alarm among the public) of the Indian Penal Code.
He was kept in the police custody before producing him in the court on April 28 and released on a conditional bail. After being released, the police first told him that he would have to be quarantined for 28 days. But later he was dropped at his residence.
Zubair, who is a freelancer, said all this was being done to teach him a lesson. “If they wanted to arrest me, they could have done so at the nearby police station. I’ve been asking questions, and it’s a big problem for them… These officials are new to Twitter and their tolerance for questions is low,” Zubair was quoted by the news portal Newslaundry.com as saying.
He said that the police also wanted to target editor of Andaman Chronicle, Denis Giles, for publishing the story which tells that the police quarantined the relatives of a covid patient for speaking to him on phone.
Andaman Chronicle had put out tweets that the police were making efforts to arrest the editor of the news portal.
#ArrestofJournalists while the case of @zubairpbl is being heard, Andaman Chronicle getting clear inputs on orders by Administration to arrest the editor @AndamanNews Denis Giles @VishnuNDTV @manogyaloiwal @dhanyarajendran @manishchandi @Survival @pankajsekh
— Andaman Chronicle (@AndamanNews) April 28, 2020
Denis said that a police official told him that an order for his arrest was issued. But after the issue was highlighted, the police are rethinking over his arrest.
