Homestay accommodating guests in Kodagu sealed

Madikeri: A homestay in Kodagu district was sealed on Sunday after ASHA workers and law enforcement authorities found that the owners of the establishment were in violation of the provisions of the lockdown. In addition to a case being booked against the owner, five guests, among whom two are women, have been booked.
Madikeri rural sub-inspector HV Chandrashekhar, along with district calamity monitoring expert RM Ananya Vasudeva and AA Abdulla, panchayat development officer for Hodduru, within the jurisdiction of which the homestay is located, raided and subsequently sealed the homestay.Vinod Chinnappa, owner River Valley Homestay in Vatekadu, had returned to Madikeri from Bengaluru on April 2 along with his friends Sandeep and Benaka Kumar. The trio was asked to stay quarantined at home for the next 15 days, while also sticking the ‘home quarantine’ seal on the establishment.
When ASHA workers called on the homestay on Sunday, and inquired about the presence of three other individuals at the establishment, Chinnappa informed them that they had come to supply medicines to his sick mother. However, subsequent inquiries gave the lie to Chinnappa’s narrative, and it emerged that the three others were guests at the homestay.
Two women and a man had been staying as guests at the homestay from April 16, which was in violation of the quarantine rules enforced by the government. The six individuals have been booked for jeopardising the lives of others, and causing risk of spreading the Covid-19 infection. The vehicle that was used by the guests for travelling has been impounded as well, and all the six have been placed in a mass quarantine facility. The entire operation was conducted under the supervision of Kodagu superintendent of police Suman D Pannekar.