Agatha Maghesh Eyamalai, a 39-year-old Indian-origin woman has been jailed along with her husband, Nigel Skea, in Singapore for violating COVID-19 quarantine rules to spend time with each other in a hotel room last year. The couple was sentenced to two weeks’ jail on Friday with a fine of 1,000 Singapore dollars $752, reported AFP citing a news report by The Straits Times.

In September 2020, Skea conspired with Eyamalai, his then-fiancee, to meet in a room of a luxury hotel where he was serving a stay-home notice after arriving in Singapore from London.

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District Judge Jasvender Kaur ruled that Skea had traveled to propose marriage and the couple was overcome by emotions after not seeing each other for a very long time. However, “the fact of the matter is that the restrictions are necessary to prevent the spread of the pandemic,” the Indian-origin judge said.

“Disruptions to relationships are an inevitable consequence. It requires patience and sacrifice (from) everyone … for the greater good,” Channel News Asia quoted the judge as saying.

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The pair pleaded guilty earlier this month. Skea admitted to two charges of exposing others to risk of infection by leaving his hotel room while on stay-home notice and failing to wear a mask.

Eyamalai, who subsequently married Skea, pleaded guilty to one charge of conspiring with Skea to breach his stay-home notice.

The couple’s defence lawyer SS Dhillon said in mitigation that Skea had come to Singapore primarily to marry his fiancee. They did so on November 14 last year.

The lawyer called it “a classic case of two lovers wanting to be together”.