District Collector of Lakshadweep Asker Ali, in his capacity as chairman of the District Disaster Management Authority (DDMA), has issued a warning to filmmaker Aisha Sultana asking her not to flout standard COVID-19 protocol prevalent in the union territory failing which stringent action will be taken against her.
The caution notice accuses Ms. Sultana, who arrived at Kavaratti on June 19 to make herself available for questioning by the police in a case of sedition charged against her, of violating the home quarantine requirement.
The notice says that Ms. Sultana travelled with others when she went to the police headquarters for interrogation by the police, and instead of going back to her place of quarantine, “ she went to public places and mingled with other people,” besides visiting the ‘Village Dweep Panchayat Office, Kavaratti, along with panchayat members and some other local residents.”
The notice also accuses her of going to a first-line treatment centre for COVID-19 patients at Dak Bungalow, Kavaratti, which it says “seems to be a deliberate act on your side to get COVID-19 viral infection and to spread this contagious disease to other people as a virus carrier. It also causes a threat of infection to the police officers who are going to conduct further investigation... (sic)”.
A complaint against her regarding this has been submitted by an officer to the competent authority, says the notice.
Ms. Sultana told The Hindu that the charges were vindictive and largely untrue. “How could I go to the police station except in a car? And, I had not gone to the Dak Bungalow area at all. Further, we have all seen that the administrator, who came from the mainland, was roaming about freely without observing any of the quarantine stipulations,” she said.
