Month: May 2020

Twelve more men of paramilitary troopers have been tested positive for coronavirus. With this, the number of infected CRPF personnel with Covid-19 rose to 122. These paramilitary troopers belong to the 31st battalion of the CRPF stationed at Mayur Vihar phase-3 area of New Delhi, that was entirely sealed after 52 personnel were infected with the novel coronavirus and one succumbed to it over the last few days. Out of the 112 samples taken, 12 more tested positive for Covid-19 on Friday, the national media reported. Earlier, a 55-year-old CRPF personnel on March 28 died due to the deadly new virus in Delhi. An entire battalion of nearly 1,100, meanwhile, was then quarantined and sealed.

Over the last two weeks, across New Delhi, numerous activists and students have been targeted and harassed by the Delhi Police. Operating under an open-ended FIR, the police are attempting to accuse these persons, many of whom are engaged in providing indispensable relief work to workers and people bereft of food and other supplies due to the ill-planned COVID-19 induced lockdown, of instigating and executing the violence that engulfed North East Delhi in late February 2020. Three activists, Meeran Haidar and Safoora Zargar of Jamia Millia Islamia and Umar Khalid, former student of Jawaharlal Nehru University, have now been charged under several sections of the draconian Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) and Indian Penal Code (IPC). These charges must not be seen as isolation. Rat...