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 as nearly 20 accused were reportedly lodged in a single cell. The accused is one of the more than 100 suspects who have been arrested in the case including nine minors.
For those unaware, two ‘sadhus’ or monks and their driver, proceeding from Nashik to Surat, were cornered and lynched by a 200-strong mob outside Gadchinchle village in Palghar district on April 16 in the presence of police personnel amid rumours that they were robbers or child kidnappers.
On the night of April 16, an aggressive mob of around 200 villagers flouting all lockdown norms had accosted a vehicle in which the two sadhus were travelling from Nashik to Surat with some relief materials late.
Suspecting them to be thieves, the crowd started questioning them before brutally assaulting then with sticks, rods and stones. When the police team reached the spot and took them to their van, the crowd swooped on the police van and continued to assault them.
