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Gangster Bhagwanpuria brought back to Patiala, isolated at Rajindra hospital
Samples taken of 22 high-risk contacts at Patiala Central Jail; gangster’s samples were also taken again in Batala on Tuesday evening, as the first report was from a private lab; this time, the government lab in Amritsar will conduct the test
A day after gangster Jaggu Bhagwanpuria tested positive for covid-19, he was brought back to Patiala on Wednesday and is now admitted at the prison ward of the Government Rajindra Hospital and Medical College.
Batala Police had taken Bhagwanpuria on a production warrant on April 30 for questioning in connection with the murder of a former Akali sarpanch of Dhilwan village in Gurdaspur district. His samples were taken on May 2.
Patiala SSP Mandeep Singh Sidhu said, “He has been kept under elaborate security at the prison ward of the hospital. The area has been cordoned off and only medical staff is being allowed inside.”
Another police official added that samples of Bhagwanpuria had been taken again on Tuesday evening in Batala, as the first report had been conducted at a private lab. The fresh samples have been sent to the government lab in Amritsar.
Patiala civil surgeon Dr Harish Malhotra said samples had also been taken of 22 high-risk contacts of the gangster, including some security staff at Patiala Central Jail.
Jail superintendent Karanjit Singh Sandhu said these contacts had been quarantined and had been shifted to separate cells. Bhagwanpuria had been shifted to a separate cell on April 21, when a mobile phone was recovered on him. Prior to this, he had been putting up with at least 20 other inmates in one of the barracks.
In Batala, those police officials who had quarantined him during remand have been asked to home quarantine for 14 days. Bhagwanpuria’s mother Harjit Kaur claimed that her son had tested negative in the second test and accused the police of hatching a conspiracy to eliminate her son.
Gurdaspur civil surgeon Dr Kisan Chand said they had not received the second sample report yet.
—With inputs from Vishal Sally in Batala
