MYSURU: On Friday, Mysuru Deputy Commissioner Abhiram G Shankar got a call and he answered it, not knowing that he would be pulled up for a crime he had not committed. He was taken aback when the voice on the other side warned him against breaching the quarantine rules.

For a moment, he thought it was a prank call. But then, he told the caller that he was the Deputy Commissioner and that was indeed his number. The caller, however, refused to believe that it was the DC himself speaking and told him not to pull a fast one. The DC may have solved many problems easily before but this time, it took him some time to convince the caller of his identity.

Once convinced, the caller, a personnel of the quarantine watch team, profusely apologised to the DC and told him that a person under home quarantine was missing and his database had the DC’s number. It was later discovered that a man, the primary contact of a patient, had given the DC’s number instead of his own to the authorities, before disappearing. So the quarantine watch team ended up tracking the DC’s number, leading to a goof-up of the ‘highest order’! When contacted, the DC confirmed the incident and said that the man was a primary contact and they were verifying his test status. 

‘False identities slowing down contact tracing’

Asked about the whereabouts of the person, the DC said that the person has not been traced yet. According to sources, the man had given the officials false information multiple times. Now, they have zeroed in on a number linked to him and are tracking the CDR records of the number to track him down.

They said that on average, every day two to three individuals give false identity and contact numbers making it tough to trace the contacts. The DC said that it is the fear and anxiety over the pandemic that leads to such issues and added that the stigma around the disease should go. Though at the ‘receiving end’, the DC said that the individual will not be charged as he wants people to give genuine info. “Our intention is to create awareness,” he said.eate awareness,” he said.