IndiGo staffer, mother harassed by neighbours in Kolkata suspecting coronavirus infection, seeks protection

According to Zee Media reports, Amrita Saha, an Indigo cabin crew member from Kolkata, had alleged in a viral video that she and her mother were being harassed by their neighbours.

Image: Video grab

KOLKATA: An IndiGo Airline staffer and her mother were allegedly harassed by their neighbours in Kolkata over suspicion that the former had contracted the deadly coronavirus COVID-19 infection, which has so far killed at least 10 people across the country.

According to Zee Media reports, Amrita Saha, an Indigo cabin crew member from Kolkata, had alleged in a video that went viral claiming that she had mother were being harassed by their neighbours over suspicion being affected by the virus.

Two days back, Amrita’s mother was harassed by her neighbours who said that her daughter might be affected by the coronavirus as she works for a private airline as a cabin crew and travels abroad. 

On Monday, when her mother went to a grocery store, she was denied groceries and her neighbours threatened that she will be dragged to the hospital. 

When Amrita arrived at her home in the evening on Monday after discharging her duties, a large number of people gathered outside her house and threatened her. 

Even the Kolkata Police officials also refused to help the two women.

Police came forward to help them only after a video showing Amrita pleading for healp while moving in a cab went viral on Twitter.

Police reached her house on Tuesday morning and assured them of all possible help. 

The Kolkata Police said that they will also carry out an awareness programs in the area to educate people and not to harass those involved with essential services. 

Meanwhile, two more persons were detected coronavirus positive in West Bengal, taking the count of such cases in the eastern state to nine. So far, one of the patients in the state has succumbed to the disease.

According to the ID Hospital, Beliaghata, swab samples of both new patients tested positive at the virology lab of the National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases on Monday night.

However, an official said, the samples have been sent for second confirmatory test. The results are expected by the evening. Both of them, kept in isolation at the ID Hospital, have recent history of foreign travel. While one of them returned from London, another had visited Egypt.

Earlier, seven persons tested positive for the deadly infection, one of whom died on Monday night.