A 25-year-old man who sneaked out of a quarantine centre in Panvel after testing positive for COVID-19 has been nabbed by the CBD Belapur police and handed over to the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC).

The Mulund resident had come to Tata Nagar in Belapur to his in-laws’ residence on April 17. “The man, along with his wife, parents-in-law and brother-in-law, was quarantined at the facility set up at an India Bulls project at Kon village in Panvel the next day,” senior police inspector Dinkar Mohite said.

While the other four tested negative, the man was found to be positive for COVID-19.

NMMC officials told him to stay at the quarantine centre while the other family members were allowed to go home. But he managed to sneak into the ambulance taking his relatives home on Tuesday.

When officials realised he was missing, they informed the police, who nabbed him from Tata Nagar on Wednesday. The police called the NMMC’s sanitising vehicle and sanitised him and his wife. “We handed him over to the officials at the quarantine centre,” Mr. Mohite said.