Itishree Misra (BOMBAY TIMES; September 17, 2020)

Kanika Kapoor, who was among the first Bollywood names to test positive for the Coronavirus in March, has gone back to London to be with her three children. The singer was in the eye of a storm after an FIR was filed against her on the charges of spreading the virus and not informing health authorities about her travel history. While Kanika appears to have left the country in June, Lucknow police are still carrying out investigations on the basis of the FIR lodged on March 20. Sources say police are awaiting Kanika’s travel details from Air India, which she took to fly into India on March 9, 2020. “We have asked Air India to send us her travel details. Once we have that, we shall proceed further in the case,” said a source, not willing to be named.

While the government ban on people travelling from the UK to India had come into effect on March 18, Kanika had told the police in her statement that she had reached India on March 9 and Lucknow on March 11. But, before she had herself tested for the virus, which yielded a positive report, the singer had attended several social gatherings and also visited her grandmother in Kanpur, coming in contact with around 500 people.

However, an online search on the UP Police database for the FIR shows ‘Record not found’. According to Amitabh Thakur, senior IPS officer, UP Police, “One of the possibilities is that the FIR has not been uploaded on the site, which is why it shows ‘Record not found’. This happens if the case is a sensitive one. The police can’t dismiss an FIR once it has been filed. In Ms Kapoor’s case, had the police filed a chargesheet against her, her passport could have been seized.”

Since a chargesheet has not been filed and there was no court restraining order, technically there was no bar on Kanika travelling abroad. “Unless there is a restraining order specifically stating so, one is at liberty to travel abroad,” says Saurabh Upadhyaya, senior counsel at the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court.

When contacted, Kanika didn’t want to comment on the matter.