Former JNU student Umar Khalid. (File Photo) Former JNU student Umar Khalid, arrested last year in connection with a Delhi riots case, has tested positive for Covid-19 in Tihar Jail.
DG (Tihar) Sandeep Goel has confirmed that he has tested positive and his report came on Saturday. He has been isolated within the jail.
Data provided by the Tihar Jail authorities till April 23 shows that the prison has 227 active cases among jail inmates and 60 among jail staff, including a jail superintendent and two prison doctors.
“Currently there are around 20,000 prisoners in Tihar. As many as 241 inmates and 60 staff have tested positive since March. Recently, the Tihar Jail administration decided to cancel meetings between prisoners and their family members till further orders, following the surge of Covid-19 cases in Delhi,” an official said.
Khalid was arrested in a case related to the riots that took place in Khajuri Khas in February 2020. A sessions court on April 15 had granted him bail. However, he is yet to be granted bail in the UAPA case related to the Delhi riots.
On April 23, a Delhi court pulled up senior Delhi Police officers for taking a decision to move applications to produce Khalid and United Against Hate founder Khalid Saifi in handcuffs in connection with a riots case.
- The Indian Express website has been rated GREEN for its credibility and trustworthiness by Newsguard, a global service that rates news sources for their journalistic standards.
