Mumbai: A day after an FIR was filed against them, BMC said actors Arbaaz Khan, his brother Sohail Khan and the latter’s son Nirvaan have been shifted to a 5-star hotel in Bandra to complete their remaining mandatory 14-day quarantine, reports Vijay V Singh. They had arrived in the city on December 25, 2020 from the UAE. Meanwhile, it has emerged that another international flyer escaped a hotel quarantine at Dadar on December 26, but the authorities are unaware of this person’s whereabouts. BMC and the collector’s office blamed each other for the lapse and no police complaint was filed.

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Mumbai: BMC has said actors Arbaaz Khan, his brother Sohail Khan and the latter’s son Nirvaan have been shifted to a fivestar hotel in Bandra to complete their 14-day quarantine.

The Khans had returned to the city from the UAE and told officials at the airport they would isolate themselves at a fivestar hotel in Bandra. Instead, they went home. BMC learnt of this on Monday, January 4, and filed a police complaint against the three for flouting the mandatory hotel quarantine rule for international flyers.

After the case was filed, civic officials forced the trio to check into a hotel for the remaining period of their 14-day quarantine. Since December 22, those who land in the city from Europe, the Gulf and South Africa have to spend seven days in a hotel or an institutional quarantine and seven more in home isolation. The rule was introduced following the outbreak of the UK strain.

A BMC official said, “One needs to complete 14 days of quarantine after returning from the countries mentioned. Khans arrived on December 25 and their 14-day period will end on January 9. According to protocol, we will test them on Wednesday or Thursday and discharge them from hotel quarantine if they test negative for Coronavirus. They don’t have any symptoms.”

In the second incident, in the early hours of December 26, five passengers who landed from one of the countries had selected a Dadar hotel to quarantine themselves in and were taken there by a bus arranged by the BMC. While four entered the hotel, one slipped away unnoticed. The other four were not related to the one who escaped.

Parag Masurkar, deputy municipal commissioner of BMC who supervises international passengers’ quarantine process said, “Since the passenger escaped without reporting at the hotel quarantine facility, we don’t have any details. Check with the collector’s office about it.” The deputy collector posted at the airport said BMC would have the case details. Mumbai suburban district collector Milind Borikar said, “We handle international flyers at the airport. The quarantine process is handled by the BMC.”