Mumbai: After Jesuit priest Stan Swamy and Delhi University professor Hany Babu testing positive for COVID-19 recently, three more Bhima-Koregaon accused - Mahesh Raut, Sagar Gorkhe and Ramesh Gaichor, lodged in Taloja jail have tested positive for the virus.
They tested positive in an RT-PCR drive conducted in the jail on Tuesday, jail superintendent Kaustubh Kurlekar said.
The three were among the only persons who tested positive among the 57 inmates who were tested in one of the routinely conducted drives, said the superintendent. The jail authority said that of the 57 persons tested, 35 were above 60 years of age.
Gorkhe and Gaichor, part of the cultural group Kabir Kala Manch, were one of the last arrests in the case in September last year. Raut, a land rights activist working with tribal communities was arrested in 2018.
Recently the Bombay High Court had directed prison authorities to shift Stan Swamy, 84 to Holy Family hospital in Bandra for treatment in an urgent hearing conducted to hear his interim bail plea after an NIA court had rejected it. He had tested positive for the virus on admission there.
Similarly, professor Hany Babu had tested positive for COVID after being taken to hospital following a public appeal by his family for follow-up over his acute eye infection.
