FIR lodged in connection with Bihar's biggest COVID-19 infection chain

Patna, Jul 3 () The father of a man who recently died here after showing coronavirus-like symptoms has been booked for violating guidelines issued in the wake of the pandemic at the wedding ceremony, which had set off the biggest infection chain in Bihar, the district administration said on Friday.

The FIR was lodged late Thursday against Ambika Chaudhary, whose son died on June 17, two days after he tied the knot while running a high fever, it said in a statement.

The body was cremated by family members before the authorities could get wind of the episode. But, testing camps were set up at the Deehpali village falling under Paliganj block and out of 259 samples that were collected, 95 tested positive.

Subsequently, all those found infected were sent to isolation centres while an inquiry was ordered by District Magistrate Kumar Ravi to look into any violation of norms at the wedding ceremony.

"It was found that more than 50 people had attended the ceremony and social distancing and wearing of masks was not ensured. Accordingly, BDO Chiranjeev Pandey has lodged an FIR against Chaudhary at Paliganj police station under relevant provisions," the statement added.

The deceased groom was a software engineer based in Gurugram who had returned home in the last week of May to get married. He started showing symptoms a few days before June 15, the scheduled date of marriage.

The family is said to have refused to put off the wedding despite requests by the ailing groom. AR NAC RBT CK