Debashish Karmakar & V Narayan (THE TIMES OF INDIA; August 6, 2020)

Patna/Mumbai: Bihar police have indicated they may move court for the release of IPS officer Vinay Tiwari, currently put under home quarantine by the BMC here till August 15.

“If our officer is not released by Thursday, we may move court,” DGP Gupteshwar Pandey told TOI, adding, he would wait to see if BMC authorities changed their mind after adverse observations made by Supreme Court on Wednesday on the Patna SP’s quarantine. Tiwari was quarantined late Sunday after he reached Mumbai to lead the investigation into actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s death.

Responding to Patna IG (central range) Sanjay Singh’s letter seeking exemption from home quarantine, BMC’s additional municipal commissioner (projects) P Velrasu said in view of the prevailing Coronavirus pandemic, the officer (Tiwari) was advised to conduct his proceedings with Maharashtra government officials via video conferencing facility. “This will not only ensure the officer does not transmit the infection (if at all he is asymptomatic)… nor he gets infected by Coronavirus during his physical visit to various officers of the government of Maharashtra in Mumbai,” the letter reads, a copy of which is with TOI.

A senior BMC official told TOI, “Tiwari should have sought exemption before reaching the city and he didn’t have a return ticket too.” Now, Tiwari will have to complete the quarantine period till August 15, he said. If Tiwari had produced a return ticket showing he was returning in seven days, exemption could have been granted. BMC officials are also searching for four other Bihar cops who are in the city as part of the probe. “They will also be quarantined,” he further said.—