A 57-year-old police, Madhukar Mane, officer attached to the Motor Transport Department of Mumbai Police died of the novel coronavirus on Friday, while assistant police inspector (API) Amol Kulkarni, succumbed to COVID-19 early on Saturday. An official said, Mane and Kulkarni's demise recorded the tenth and eleventh death in the state police department.
Police said that assistant sub-inspector Mane was attached to the Motor Transport department at Nagpada and had been sent on a compulsory leave for the last 15 days as he was in the high-risk age group in the light of the spread of coronavirus pandemic.
In the second death, API Amol Kulkarni, 32, who was attached to Shahu Nagar police station, had complained of cold and fever on May 13, and was admitted to the civic-run Sion Hospital. The doctors had conducted tests for the novel coronavirus, which came out positive on Saturday.
However, around 5 am on Saturday, Kulkarni was found lying unconscious on the bathroom floor and was rushed to the hospital, where he was declared brought dead.
So far, the COVID-19 has claimed lives of 11 policemen in Maharashtra -- eight in Mumbai alone and one each in Solapur, Nashik and Pune.
In the last week, four policemen have lost their lives to the battle of coronavirus, including ASI Mane and API Kulkarni. Two other personnel, ASI Murlidhar Waghmare, 57, of Sewri police station and Police Naik Bhagwan Parte, 45, attached to Shivaji Nagar police station succumbed to the novel Coronavirus.
In total, over 1,154 police personnel have been tested positive for Coronavirus, which includes 128 officers and 1,026 constables. So far, 174 police personnel have recovered from virus. Subsequently, a huge number of policemen have also been sent to self quarantine, which has left a staggering shortage of personnel in the police department.
In the light of these facts, the state authorities have asked the centre to send around 2,000 additional policemen from the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPF) to provide some respite to its own fatigued officers.
