A day after the inspector general (IG) of police (Central Region) Patna, Sanjay Singh, wrote to the BMC chief, seeking exemption from home quarantine for Bihar cadre IPS officer Vinay Tiwari, the civic body turned down the request on Tuesday. In a reply to the Bihar Police, the civic body has said that Tiwari should stay in quarantine and use digital platforms for his proceedings and interaction with concerned officials in Mumbai.
Tiwari (city superintendent of police, Patna Central), who is in Mumbai to monitor the investigation by a four-member team of Bihar Police in the case of actor Sushant Singh Rajput’s death, was quarantined by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Sunday after he arrived from Patna. A day later, the civic body issued a statement that it had instructed Bihar-cadre IPS officer Tiwari to apply for an exemption in the home quarantine period because of the raging Covid-19 pandemic in the city.
BMC Additional Municipal Commissioner (Projects), P Velrasu, responded to Singh's letter on Tuesday and refused to grant any such relief, citing the prevalence of Covid-19 in Bihar.
Velrasu, in his reply, advised Tiwari to conduct his proceedings pertaining to the investigation using digital platforms. The letter stated: “In view of the prevailing coronavirus pandemic situation in Bihar, it is advised that the officer can conduct his proceedings with various concerned officials of the Govt of Maharashtra on digital platforms such as Zoom/Google Meet/Jio Meet/ Microsoft Teams or other such digital platforms to interact. This will not only ensure that the officer does not transmit the infection (if at all he is asymptomatic of covid19 infection) to the officials with whom he will contact, nor he gets infected by coronavirus during his physical visits to various officials of the Govt. of Maharashtra” said Velrasu in his letter to Singh.
In his letter, Velarasu further warned the officer (Tiwari) to be in compliance with all the rules and regulations prevailing in the state of Maharashtra.
The Bihar Police team is probing an “abetment to suicide” case on the basis of a complaint filed by the actor’s father in Patna in July.
According to a BMC statement, Tiwari was quarantined as per the rules for domestic air travellers. “He (Tiwari) has also been guided to apply to the competent authority of MCGM (Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai) for exemption in the home quarantine period,” it said.
“We are following the procedures that are stipulated by the BMC during the pandemic crisis and are uniform for all travellers arriving in the city," Velrasu added.
However, it is being asked why the four officers who had earlier came to Mumbai in connection with the case on July 27, were not similarly quarantined by the civic body. Tiwari had alleged on Monday
that the BMC had selectively quarantined him.
Bihar's Director General of Police (DGP) Gupteshwar Pandey said on Sunday that Tiwari was quarantined ‘forcefully’ at 11pm by BMC officials at a Goregaon guest house within a few hours of his arrival in the city.
Pandey, on Wednesday, took to Twitter to claim that the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) had refused to let Tiwari out of quarantine despite a letter from the Patna IG.
"The Patna IG had written a letter to the Chief of BMC, opposing the quarantining of IPS Vinay Tiwari and requested that he be released, which has been rejected. The BMC has replied to the letter from Patna Police. Now our SP Vinay Tiwari will be locked inside for 14 days. This decision of the BMC is unfortunate!," DGP Pandey tweeted in Hindi.
