Police commissioner’s office closed for public, 2 stations shut down as 20 personnel test positive for Covid-19

Among the personnel who tested positive were an inspector, a sub-inspector, eight assistant sub-inspectors, a head constable, four home guard jawans, four constables and an accountant

As 20 personnel of the Ludhiana police Commissionerate and two private workers at the Police Lines tested positive for Covid-19 on Monday, public dealing at the police commissioner’s office was discontinued and two police stations, division number 3 and number 8, shut down for three days.

Two of Ludhiana’s police stations have been closed down after a number of their men tested positive, taking the total count of police personnel infected to 76, while 31 personnel have recovered. (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

Among the personnel who tested positive were an inspector, a sub-inspector, eight assistant sub-inspectors (ASIs), a head constable, four home guard jawans, four constables and an accountant. With this, the total number of police personnel infected has gone up to 76, while 31 personnel have recovered.

Police commissioner Rakesh Agarwal said that five personnel at division number 3 police station, including the station house officer (SHO), inspector Satish Kumar, had been infected. Others included four police personnel from division number 8 and two cops deputed at the commissioner’s office.

Agarwal said public dealing had been discontinued for three days at his office and the two police stations except for cases of extreme emergency.

Other routine work of the division number 8 station would be handled by the Sadar police station and that of division number 3 would be looked after by the division number 1 station.

The affected offices were being sanitised thoroughly and testing of all contacts are being done.

Police personnel who feared they had come in contact with the infected personnel were advised to self quarantine and get tested.

Earlier, public dealing had been suspended at the Moti Nagar police station for two days after five police personnel tested positive.

The department had already lost assistant commissioner of police (ACP, north) Anil Kumar Kohli to Covid-19 on April 18.

Deputy superintendent of police (DSP- investigation) Manmohan Sarna of Khanna, two sub-inspectors and two head constables deputed at the Doraha police station had also tested positive.