The Nerul police have arrested a 42-year-old man for abusing healthcare workers and obstructing their work by refusing to take a Covid-19 antigen test despite being in close contact with a person who tested positive for the infection.

A team comprising a doctor and a nurse had visited the N2 building of sector 15 in Nerul after finding a positive patient there on Sunday afternoon. Senior police inspector Shyam Shinde said that as per the orders of the Navi Mumbai civic commissioner, the officials are supposed to contact-trace 31 persons for every positive case.

The officials had approached the accused, Vipinkumar Puranchand Bhola, a trainer with a telecom company, for the same when he obstructed their work by not allowing them to take his sample and abusing them. The accused also pushed the doctor and nurse away, Shinde said. Bhola was arrested after Dr Rohit Khateek registered a case with Nerul police station.

Assistant police inspector Milind Phadtare said that Bhola’s Rt-PCR test was done after his arrest and it came back negative. He was produced before the court on Monday and has been remanded to judicial custody by the magistrate court.

The accused was arrested under sections of 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant from discharge of his duty), 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant) and 270 (act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life) of the Indian Penal Code.

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