An Infosys employee in Bengaluru has been arrested by the City Crime Branch (CCB) for a shocking social media post urging people to "go out and sneeze" and spread the highly contagious COVID-19 virus that has infected over 800 people across the country and killed 19 others."Let's join hands, go out and sneeze with open mouth in public. Spread the virus," the man, identifed by news agency PTI as Mujeeb Mohammad, a resident of the city for 25 years, wrote on Facebook.
"The person who put this post, saying people should go out and sneeze and spread the virus, has been detained. A case has been registered," said Sandeep Patil, Joint Commissioner (CCB, Bengaluru). A leading IT services firm, Infosys responded saying the post was "against the code of conduct and its commitment to responsible social sharing". "Infosys has completed its investigation on the social media post by one of its employees and we believe that this is not a case of mistaken identity," the company said in a statement posted on Twitter.
"The social media post by the employee is against Infosys' code of conduct and its commitment to responsible social sharing. Infosys has a zero tolerance policy towards such acts and has accordingly, terminated the services of the employee," the statement added.India is currently in the fourth day of a 21-day lockdown ordered by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to halt the spread of the virus.The centre has responded to the outbreak by shutting borders and suspending all flights, both domestic and foreign. State governments have shut internal borders and closed, or limited, public transport.