Accused held in Palghar lynching case tests COVID-19 positive

One of the persons arrested in connection with the Palghar lynching case, who was lodged in a police lock-up, has tested coronavirus positive, an official said on Saturday. Police have so far arrested 115 persons, including nine minors, in connection with the lynching of three men, including two seers, at Gadchinchale village in Palghar last month. The accused tested positive for the infection on Friday night, the official said.

"He was kept in a police lock-up at Wada in the district along with 20 others. After testing positive, he was admitted to a government hospital in Palghar," district civil surgeon Dr Kanchan Wanere said. "Twenty others kept in lock-up with him have been quarantined along with around 23 police personnel, who came had come in contact with him," she said. The health department is now trying to find out how he contracted the infection, Wanere said.

According to sources, on April 18, a test was conducted on all the accused arrested in the case till then to know whether they were infected. However, all of them had tested negative at that time. The second test was conducted on Friday and the result came at night, in which the accused was found COVID-19 positive, the sources said. The accused had been presented before a local court on April 30 along with other accused, they said, adding that his family members will be quarantined now.

The state police's Crime Investigation Department (CID) had on Friday arrested five more persons in connection with the incident of lynching, which took the number of accused held to 115. The incident took place on April 16 when the two seers were heading towards Surat from Mumbai in a car with a driver to attend a funeral. A mob of villagers stopped them and beat them to death on suspicion that they were thieves, even as a few police personnel had reached the spot. PTI COR NP NP 05021