Bhopal: The police headquarters in Madhya Pradesh capital Bhopal has been closed till April 26 after a staffer posted there tested positive for Covid-19, taking the total number of cases among cops in the city to 29.
ADG (administration) Ajay Kumar Sharma issued the order late on Tuesday evening, asking all department heads not to summon employees to PHQ unless urgent and asked them to function from home till April 26.
The officer instructed officers to communicate via e-mails and WhatsApp, and said that all the work that takes place on e-mails will be considered part of the official record and State Crime Record Bureau would keep a record of all these details in record.
The panic spread in the department after the driver of DG (EoW) Rajiv Tandon tested positive for coronavirus and his son, a clerk posted at the PHQ, also contracted the infection. The Economic Offence Wing which functions from a separate building as PHQ has been closed down and all staffers, including the DG, have been home quarantined. Their samples are now being collected for testing.
Till Wednesday, as many as 29 police personnel contracted the infection in Bhopal, said a spokesperson from PHQ. Of these, three have recovered from the disease, he added.
Not just Bhopal, police officials from other areas of MP have also been found to have the virus. Two SHOs — Devendra Chadrawanshi from Indore and Yashwant Pal from Ujjain — died due and an Additional SP posted in Mhow is currently under Covid-19 treatment. His kin, too, had contracted the infection like was the case with several policemen in Bhopal.
Afraid of catching the infection, Chetan Singh, a constable who was posted in the Ratibad area in Bhopal for coronavirus duty, had shot himself with a service revolver recently. He was, however, was saved and is under treatment.
One of the policemen in Bhopal had contracted the infection from Tablighi Jamat members after being deployed for their protection.
Senior police officers in Bhopal and other cities have kept themselves in isolation as a precautionary measure and some officers have even turned their offices or garages into makeshift accommodations.
In Indore, policemen on duty have been kept at hotels, lodges and dharmashalas to save their families from infection. Policemen who had taken some prisoners to Satna and Jabalpur after they were slapped with NSA were also quarantined after two prisoners tested positive later on.
Despite hardships, the policemen, apart from ensuring law and order, are also engaging in food distribution, helping out elderly residents, cattle and also cracking down the whip on those breaching lockdown orders.
The health department is the biggest sufferer in Bhopal as close to 100 of staffers, including over a dozen officials, have fallen prey to Covid-19 as of now and are under treatment at various hospitals.
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