Cannot access json file downloaded from RN-Fetch-Blob

In my file, i download and upzip a .zip folder which contains a JSON file. I have also checked that the file does exist after download from the following code,

RNFetchBlob.fs.exists($dbSchema) .then((exists) => { console.log(Exists: ${exists}) }) .catch((e) => { console.log(e) })

which returns true. However, when i do

const realmSchema = require($dbSchema);,

I get the following typescript error:

Error: TransformError config/database/database.ts: config/database/database.ts:Invalid call at line 52: require($dbSchema).

Does anyone know what might cause this?