2 UK returnees given 7 days’ jail for violating institutional quarantine rule

A mobile court in Sylhet sentenced two UK returnees to seven days' imprisonment last night for not abiding by mandatory institutional quarantine, enforced to curb Covid-19 spread.

Abdun Noor (42), a resident of Sylhet city's Paharika residential area, and Alam Hasan Rouf (36) of Chanpur village of Sylhet's Bishwanath Upazila, were also fined Tk 10,000 each.

BM Asraf Ullah Taher, additional deputy commissioner (media) of Sylhet Metropolitan Police, said, "The expatriates reached Sylhet from London on March 22 and were in mandatory institutional quarantine at Hotel Star Pacific in Dargah Gate area of the city."

"On completion of seven days, their swab sample was collected for coronavirus test on March 29. But before the results came, they left the hotel yesterday morning," the police official said.

They returned to the hotel around 6:30pm, our Sylhet correspondent reports quoting Asraf Ullah.

During a mobile court drive at the hotel last night, Md Mesbah Uddin, assistant commissioner and executive magistrate, jailed the duo for seven days and fined them under the Infectious Diseases (Prevention, Control and Eradication) Act 2018.

"After receiving the fine on the spot, the expatriates were sent to Sylhet Central Jail around 10:30pm," the police official said.