Karnataka: 5 Riot Accused Test Positive, 116 Shifted To Bengaluru Haj Complex

The inmates were arrested and remanded to judicial custody on April 21 for allegedly attacking healthcare warriors and rioting at the containment zone in the city's southwest suburb on April 19

Bengaluru: Police personnel conduct a march in areas of Padarayanapura in Chamarajapet during ongoing COVID-19 lockdown, in Bengaluru, Monday, April 20, 2020. Tension gripped Padarayanapur locality after a gang of miscreants allegedly stormed a check-post and pulled it down completely besides destroying the barricades that were put up to seal the area as part of Covid-19 containment measures. (PTI Photo/Shailendra Bhojak)

Bengaluru: At least two persons of the 123 accused in Padarayanapura vandalism case, who were lodged in Ramanagara jail, have tested positive for the coronavirus COVID-19 case. Following the confirmation of COVID-19, the district administration immediately shifted the two accused to designate isolation facility at the Victoria Hospital in Bengaluru and others to a quarantine center. It is to be noted that Padarayanapura has already been declared a red zone. Ramesh Bhanot, DCP (West) said, "Of the 121 accused, 116 who tested negative have been shifted to Haj Bhavan in the city from the district jail after the remaining five tested positive on Thursday to prevent other inmates from getting infected". Ramanagara, about 50km southwest of Bengaluru on the state highway towards Mysuru, has been a green spot with not a single coronavirus case till date. The inmates were arrested and remanded to judicial custody on April 21 for allegedly attacking healthcare warriors and rioting at the containment zone in the city's southwest suburb on April 19. Also Check: Coronavirus In India LIVE Updates Bhanot stated, "As all the accused are from the containment zone where three Tablighi Jamaat returnees tested positive and their 58 primary and secondary contacts have been sent to a quarantine center in the city, they were subjected to COVID-19 test, in which five had tested positive and 116 negative,". Of the five positive cases, two were shifted on late Thursday night and three on Friday post-noon after the jail authorities received their test results earlier in the day. Assistant Commissioner of Police (West) Krishna Kumar told IANS that the accused were lodged in the district jail, as the central jail in the city's southern outskirts was crowded and the authorities did not want to risk. "As Ramanagara jail is closer to the city and spacious to accommodate so many accused, they were lodged there in separate cells," Kumar was quoted as saying. Also Watch: Car stuck as land caves in after heavy rainfall in Bengaluru Former state chief minister and JD-S leader H.D. Kumaraswamy, however, objected to lodging the accused in the Ramanagara jail, as the district was a green spot and not a hotspot like Bengaluru and Mysuru. Kumaraswamy who represents the Ramanagara constituency in the assembly said, “I had warned the government in the past too regarding this but my words went unheeded. Because of this Ramanagara has got coronavirus. Along with the two who have tested positive, seven or eight others were also transported,” the former chief minister said in one of his tweets. He also said that Ramanagara jail should be quarantined along with the police, security, and administrative personnel in the jail. Ramanagara is a bastion of regional opposition party Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) from whose Assembly segment Kumaraswamy has won three times and is currently represented in the lower house by his wife Anita.