Coronavirus: Man Arrested In Palghar Incident Tests Positive

One of the people arrested with regard to the Palghar lynching case and who had been kept in police lock-up has now tested positive for coronavirus, PTI reported on Saturday. The Palghar mob-lynching of two Sadhus at Gadchinchale in Palghar district on April 16, had stirred up a storm, following which the Uddhav Thackeray government in Maharashtra had instituted a CID probe in the matter.

Police have arrested 115 people including nine minors in connection with the mob lynching of two Sadhus and their driver. One of the accused tested positive for COVID-19 on Friday night and was later admitted to a government hospital in Palghar. He was earlier in police lock-up at Wada in Palghar district along with 20 others.

Health authorities have now quarantined him along with 20 others who were in the lock-up with him, as also 23 policemen who had come in contact with him.

A COVID-19 test conducted on April 18 turned out to be negative in the case of all the arrested. The health authorities conducted a second test on Friday and the accused was found COVID-19 positive when the results returned at night.

The family members of the accused who tested positive for COVID-19 will be sent to an isolation facility.

The Supreme Court on Friday asked the Maharashtra government to submit a status report on the probe conducted so far in the Palghar mob-lynching case. While making the Union of India a party to the case, Justices Ashok Bhushan and Sanjiv Khanna observed that they would hear the case after four weeks once the state government submits its status report.

The Supreme Court was hearing a petition filed by a lawyer, Shashank Shekhar Jha alleging police complicity in the incident and seeking an inquiry by a judicial commission or the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the Palghar incident.