Palghar lynching accused tests positive for Covid-19

One of the accused in the Palghar lynching case, who was locked-up at Wada police station, has tested positive for coronavirus.

The accused was first admitted in an isolation ward of Palghar rural hospital and is being shifted to a prisoner ward at JJ Hospital.

He is believed to have contracted the infection in a lock-up where nearly 20 other accused were reportedly lodged with him in a single cell.

The accused is one of the more than 100 suspects who have been arrested in the case including nine minors.

This comes after the Maharashtra Criminal Investigation Department (CID) said it had arrested five more accused including two senior citizens in the case on Thursday night.

So far a total of 115 people, including 9 minors who have been sent to the children’s remand home in Bhiwandi, have been nabbed in the case. Irrfan Shaikh, deputy superintendent of police, CID, said the accused were produced before the Dahanu court on Friday and have been remanded in CID custody till May 13.

Two sadhus - 70-year-old Kalpavriksha Giri Maharaj and 35-year-old Sushil Giri Maharaj of the Juna Akhara - and 30-year-old driver Nilesh Telgade were travelling in a car from Kandivli to Surat to attend the funeral of a senior Sadhu when near Gaddchinchale village a huge mob of 500 lynched them to death. The trio was attacked on the suspicion of being child-lifters.

The Maharashtra Crime Investigation Department (CID) is probing the case on the orders of the Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray.