RANCHI: Jailed RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav, who is currently admitted to Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) in Ranchi, is likely to be put under scanner for Covid-19 after a policeman, deputed for his security, tested positive on Monday.
Doctors, however, said that samples of other policemen deputed along with him will be taken first. The RJD chief will undergo tests only if their results come out to be positive.
The infected cop was sent to his native place on a 12-day leave. He was put under quarantine after he returned to Ranchi as per the guidelines issued by the State Government. While in isolation period, his samples were taken which showed positive results for Covid-19 on Monday.
Meanwhile, contact tracing of the policeman is being done. “We are getting all details about the cop, whether he was posted on the ground floor or the first floor, when did he go home and when he came back,” said Dr. Umesh Prasad under whose supervision RJD Chief is admitted to RIMS. Covid-19 test of Lalu Ji will be done only after contact tracing of that policeman is established with him, he added.
“Samples of other policemen, deputed along with that cop, however, will be sent for examination, and if anyone of them is found positive, then only we will think about taking samples of Lalu Ji,” said Dr. Umesh Prasad. The doctors further added that it will also be checked whether the policeman, who has been tested positive, was actually deputed to RIMS within the incubation period of coronavirus or not, he added.
After being convicted by a Special CBI Court in Ranchi on December 23, 2017, in the second fodder scam case involving the illegal withdrawal of Rs 89.27 lakh from Deoghar treasury, the 72-year-old RJD chief was lodged in Birsa Munda Central jail in Ranchi but was shifted to RIMS looking at his deteriorating health conditions. Lalu Prasad is currently admitted to the 100-bed paying ward of RIMS in Ranchi.
The RJD Chief, a heart patient with kidney ailments, had recently undergone a fistula operation at Asian Heart Institute in Mumbai.