Four passengers travelling with quarantine stamp caught on train near Mumbai

The four coronavirus suspects who returned from Germany had boarded a train to Surat from Mumbai by evading the attention of Mumbai health authorities

Mumbai: While coronavirus cases are rampant across the nation, four passengers were reportedly accused of jumping quarantine on Wednesday. The four passengers were deboarded from the Mumbai-Delhi Garib Rath train in Mumbai for allegedly jumping quarantine, Western Railway officials sources said.

Some alert co-passengers and travelling ticket examiners raised an alarm when they noticed the "quarantine stamp" on the back of the palms of the four barely an hour after the train left Mumbai.

The train was halted at Palghar and the four passengers were offloaded from coach numbers G4 and G5. They were promptly handed over to a medical team at the station.

On questioning by the local health authorities, the four revealed that they had come from Germany and were headed home in Surat.

"The passengers were immediately handed over to the Palghar district medical authorities who also confirmed that the four were "stamped" at Mumbai Airport for a 14-day compulsory quarantine," an official told IANS.

It’s still not clear how they managed to evade the attention of the Mumbai health authorities and reached the railway station, booked tickets, boarded the train and travelled unhindered for over an hour before being offloaded at Palghar station, which is a couple of hours away from their intended destination (Surat).

The four passengers are currently lodged in a Palghar medical facility and further details are awaited.

It may be recalled that on Monday, the Maharashtra authorities had implemented the decision to "stamp" all people arriving from COVID-19 affected countries and to send them to 14 days' mandatory quarantine as a precaution.