BHOPAL: One of the four men, slapped with National Security Act (NSA) for assaulting an on-duty police constable in Chandan Nagar area of Indore on Tuesday, tested positive for the deadly coronavirus.
The 30-year-old Javed Khan tested positive for virus in Jabalpur on Saturday.
Importantly, seeing coronavirus-like symptoms in Khan, the DIG (Prison) Gopal Tamrakar had disallowed Khan's entry into Jabalpur Central Jail on Thursday. After informing the Jabalpur collector Bharat Yadav and SP Amit Singh, Tamrakar sent the NSA detainee to hospital for COVID-19 test.
Khan along with another man, who has also been charged under NSA provisions, were taken to a Jabalpur hospital for COVID-19 test and quarantined there. On Saturday, while Khan tested positive for the deadly virus, the other man was declared negativ, but is still quarantined as a precautionary measure.
“All the four men who assaulted the on-duty cop were slapped with NSA on Tuesday. They were sent to Jabalpur Central Jail in two lots. Khan, who was in the second lot along with another man, tested positive,” Jail DIG-Jabalpur Gopal Tamrakar said.
While the alertness of the DIG saved the inmates and staff of the Central Jail from possible deadly infection, the six policemen who brought Khan and the other NSA detainee from Indore to Jabalpur and five to six other Jabalpur district police personnel who took the duo to the hospital on Thursday now risk contracting the deadly virus.
Surprisingly, despite Indore being one of the top five COVID-19 hotspots in the country, the local administration and police in Indore didn’t get the coronavirus test of NSA detainees (despite them being from the Chandan Nagar containment zone) done before sending them to Jabalpur.