A 72-year-old man who flew in from Kazakhstan was booked for deliberately escaping mandatory coronavirus screening at the Indira Gandhi International airport in Delhi and the subsequent institutional quarantine, Hindustan Times reported on Sunday. He was traced to his daughter’s house in Ghaziabad and was sent to quarantine for 14 days, after which he will be arrested.

Harjeet Singh, a resident of Dilshad Garden, landed at the Delhi airport from Almaty in Kazakhstan on Saturday. However, when his name was called out at Terminal 3’s screening hall for checking, officials realised he was missing.

Rajeev Ranjan, deputy commissioner of police of the Delhi airport, told the newspaper he was informed by the Yamuna Vihar sub-divisional magistrate’s office that Singh had gone missing from the entry gate of screening hall. The police said he had deliberately escaped in order to evade screening and mandatory quarantine.

“A team even visited his Dilshad Garden house on Saturday, but he wasn’t there,” Ranjan added.

While investigating, the police also found that the mobile number and address given by Singh on arrival were defunct, according to PTI. However, the police scanned CCTV footage of the airport to track Singh’s movements. They identified the vehicle in which he left the airport and traced him down to Ghaziabad.

“Team members sent to bring him back were dressed in personal protection equipment suits,” Ranjan said. “We brought him back to the airport on Sunday evening, and he was screened. He also produced some documents to prove that he is medically not fit and therefore, was allowed 14 days [of] home quarantine by health department officials.”

A case was registered against Singh under Section 188 of the Indian Penal Code, which relates to violating government orders, and under Section 269 and Section 270 for committing a negligent act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life, Ranjan added.

According to Union Home Ministry guidelines, all expatriates returning to the country from abroad have to undergo mandatory screening at the airport, spend seven days in institutional quarantine and another seven isolating themselves at home.