Mumbai: Accused tests positive, magistrate, cops quarantined

Mumbai : At least 22 persons, including a Magistrate, court staffers and police personnel have been quarantined after a person accused of theft and break-in tested COVID-19 positive, official sources said here on Monday.

The accused was caught breaking into a closed shop to steal cigarette packets on April 21 in Bangur Nagar, Goregaon suburb, during lockdown.

However, a police patrol team caught him red-handed and later found that he had been externed from Mumbai earlier for other crimes.

He was produced before a Holiday Magistrate in a suburban court the next morning, which sent him to police custody. The accused was driven in a police van to the Thane Central Jail, but since Thane Jail was packed to capacity, he was taken to Taloja Central Jail in Raigad.

The Taloja Central Jail authorities refused to take him without undergoing a Covid-19 test, so the accused was brought to Sir J. J. Hospital in Mumbai where he turned out to be positive on Saturday (April 25).