Kashi flat owner booked for renting premises to Chinese woman

VARANASI: A case was registered against a Varanasi flat owner on Monday after a 31-year-old Chinese woman, stranded in the city due to lockdown, was found staying on his premises on rent amid the Covid-19 pandemic without the landlord having given intimation to the police and the foreigner record registration office that he had provided accommodation to a foreign national, the police said.

Bharatbhushan Tiwari, the station officer of the Lanka police station, said the case was registered against the flat owner under relevant sections of the Sarai Act, the Foreigners Act and Section 269 of the Indian Panel Code (Negligent act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life) following a complaint by the officer in charge of the city’s Sankatmochan police outpost.

Regional tourism officer Kirtiman Srivastava said the tourist would be tested for the coronavirus as a precautionary measure.

Srivastava said a notice will be issued to the owners of PG (paying guest) accommodations to inform the police as soon as any guest shifts to their flat, house or any other accommodation.

Flat owner Sambhav Chaturvedi, a resident of Varanasi, said that he was stuck in Patna due to the lockdown and therefore could not inform the police. He said he agreed to give the flat to her on rent when he was informed by a tourist guide that the Chinese woman was stranded in Varanasi due to the lockdown.

Zhou Juhua, resident of Hunan province in China, arrived in New Delhi on January 29, a senior officer of the LIU said. Her visa is valid till September.

After having spent about three weeks in the national capital, she reached Varanasi on February 26, the LIU official added.

Initially staying in a hotel in the Dashashwamedh Ghat area of Varanasi till March 21, she shifted to the flat in Saket Nagar Colony under the Lanka police station limits on March 22, the official said.

She had to take the flat on rent as she was unable to return to Delhi due to suspension of flights and train services amid the Covid-19 lockdown, a police officer said.

Through her tourist guide, the woman contacted the flat owner who agreed to give the premises on rent to her. Later, the Local Intelligence Unit received information about the Chinese woman staying in the flat.

The Lanka station officer said information about the woman was received from the LIU on Monday. An inspection confirmed the Chinese woman was living in the flat.