Punjab Shiv Sena (Taksali) president Sudhir Suri tests Covid-19 positive in Ropar jail

PATIALA: Punjab Shiv Sena (Taksali) President Sudhir Suri who was shifted in Ropar jail after being held recently from Indore, MP, in a case registered against him over hate speech, tested positive of Covid-19 on Friday.
He was recently booked by Jandiala police in Amritsar (Rural) for hate mongering in an objectionable video clip allegedly denigrating women and inciting animosity between two groups which had gone viral.A day later he was nabbed by the police.
It is learned that Sudhir Suri has been isolated inside the jail. It is also learned that in the recent past five gangsters and 21 other jail inmates having alleged criminal past were recently transferred from Ropar jail to jails in Nabha and Patiala in order to avoid any untoward situation inside jail.
Jail Superintendent JS thind confirmed the development and said that Sudhir Suri was shifted in Ropar jail from Hoshiarpur jail on July 17. He said that Suri had tested positive during random sampling of Jail inmates as well as the jail authorities however only Suri had reported positive of Covid19 while samples of others were reported negative of coronavirus.
He said that some jail inmates including prisoners and undertrials including alleged gangsters or militants were transferred to another jails following security reasons after Sudhir Suri was brought in Ropar jail.
The tally of active cases has reached 50 in Ropar including two testing positive on Friday.
Meanwhile, 49 more cases were reported positive of Covid-19 infection in Patiala taking the tally to 1,266 in the district while 653 have been recovered so far. Dr Harish Malhotra, Patiala civil Surgeon revealed that a 73-year-old woman of Patiala city who was admitted in private hospital in Ludhiana and was Covid-19 positive died taking the death toll to 20 in the district. He said 593 were active cases till now while reports of 943 samples were awaited.