Accused held in Palghar lynching case tests COVID-19 positive

Three people, who were travelling from Kandivali in Mumbai to Gujarat via interior roads of Palghar, were beaten to death on April 17 by Gadchinchle villagers, who suspected them of being thieves, police said.

Palghar Police arrested around 110 people, including nine juveniles in connection with the mob lynching. The state police's Crime Investigation Department (CID) had on Friday arrested five more persons in connection with the incident of lynching, which took the number of accused held to 115.

One of the persons arrested in connection with the Palghar lynching case, who was lodged in a police lock-up, has tested coronavirus positive, an official said on Saturday.

The accused tested positive for the infection on Friday night, the official said.

"He was kept in a police lock-up at Wada in the district along with 20 others. After testing positive, he was admitted to a government hospital in Palghar," district civil surgeon Dr Kanchan Wanere said.

"Twenty others kept in lock-up with him have been quarantined along with around 23 police personnel, who came had come in contact with him," she said.

The health department is now trying to find out how he contracted the infection, Wanere said.