ALOR STAR: The owner of a nasi kandar restaurant in Napoh, Kedah, acknowledged as the index case for the Covid-19 'Sivagangga cluster', was today fined RM12,000 and jailed five months for violating home quarantine orders.
Nezar Mohamed Sabur Batcha, 57, who owns Nasi Kandar Salleh, was found guilty by the Alor Star magistrate's court of violating home quarantine procedures on July 14.
Nezar pleaded guilty after the charge was read out by an interpreter before Magistrate Mohd Hadi Hakimi Harun.
According to the first and second charges, the accused left his quarantine residence to go to a Bank Rakyat branch at 4.40pm and to an Agrobank branch in Jitra at 3.58 on July 14, 2020.
For the third and fourth charges, the accused was found to have visited the Inland Revenue Board office in Kubang Pasu at 3.35pm and a Public Bank branch in Jitra at 3pm on the same day.
The prosecution was conducted by Deputy Public Prosecutor Zabidah Ahmad. The accused was not represented.
The court proceedings were held at Ward I in the Alor Setar Hospital.
He was charged under Section 15(1) of the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases Act 1988, which carried a maximum jail term of two years, or a fine, or both.
Mohd Hadi found the accused guilty on all charges. The accused was fined RM3,000 and jailed five months for each offence, the sentence to run concurrently.
His jail sentence however has not begun as he is still being monitored at the hospital.
Nezar, an Indian national with permanent resident status in Malaysia, had been linked to the Sivagangga cluster, which spread in three states - Kedah, Perlis and Penang.
To date, 45 people from this cluster tested positive, involving three generations.