Shop owner booked after 30 workers found living in unhygienic conditions in Bengali Market

An FIR was lodged against a pastry shop owner in Bengali Market here after his 30 workers were found living in unhygienic conditions and not adhering to social distancing norms to contain the spread of coronavirus, police said on Thursday.

The Bengali Market, along with 20 other COVID-19 hotspots in Delhi, was sealed after three members of a family tested positive for the deadly virus there.

As a preventive measure, police, along with a medical team, members from New Delhi Municipal Corporation and the District Magistrate, conducted home-to-home verification in Bengali Market on Thursday, a senior police official said.

Police found 30 workers of a pastry shop living either on the terrace of the shop or behind it at shelters provided to them in unhygienic conditions without maintaining social distancing, he added.

Subsequently, An FIR was registered at Barakhamba road police station under section 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant), 269 (negligent act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life) of the Indian Penal Code and section 3 of the Epidemic Diseases Act against the shop owner, police said.

The workers were evacuated and shifted to shelter homes, they said.

Two among them, who showed symptoms of fever, were tested for COVID-19 but their reports came negative. They were later shifted to a quarantine centre in the Mandir Marg area, police said.