Bihar cadre IPS officer Vinay Tiwari. (PTI)
Bihar cadre IPS officer Vinay Tiwari returned to Patna on Friday after the BMC exempted him from the mandatory 14-day home quarantine a domestic air traveller has to undergo after arriving in Mumbai.
Tiwari, who arrived in Mumbai on Sunday to probe the Sushant Singh Rajput death case, following a FIR lodged by the Bihar Police, was put under quarantine by the BMC the same day.
The decision to allow him to return was taken following a special request from the Patna Police. The BMC on Thursday asked Tiwari to leave the city before August 8. He was also told to report to the airport in a private vehicle and take precautions expected of air passengers as per the SOP issued by the Maharashtra government on May 25.
Minutes before leaving the city, Tiwari told mediapersons, “Not me, the investigation of Sushant Singh Rajput’s death case was quarantined by the BMC.”
Tiwari had come to Mumbai to probe the matter after Rajput’s father approached the Bihar Police and registered a case of abetment to suicide against the actor’s girlfriend Rhea Chakraborty and her family members. Soon after his arrival, he was quarantined at the SRPF camp in Goregaon by the BMC. This led to a war of words between Mumbai and Bihar Police forces.
In a letter to the Bihar Police on Thursday, BMC Additional Municipal Commissioner P Velrasu said: “It is surprising and unfortunate to note that a visiting senior officer, before proceeding to Maharashtra, has not acquainted himself of the Covid quarantine guidelines issued by the Maharashtra government to arrest the spread of the Covid pandemic in the state. It may be noted that the guidelines are available in the public domain.”
“Considering that it is only the fifth day of his travel, and since the request to exempt from home isolation to go back to Patna has come from the Patna Police and considering the provision in the SOP to exempt passengers on short duration visit, it is hereby decided to exempt Mr Vinay Tiwari from home quarantine,” it added.
On July 27, a team of four policemen from Bihar had come to Mumbai to investigate the matter. However, they were not quarantined by the BMC and returned to Patna on Thursday.
When asked why the four policemen were not quarantined as Tiwari, a senior BMC official, on the condition of anonymity, said: “The four were not obstructed from entering the city, as they had showed police identity cards to the airport authorities. Later, we were trying to locate them but could not find them. Yesterday, we learnt that they have left the city.”