Tuticorin custodial death: 4 CBI officials probing case test positive for Coronavirus

Four out of eight CBI officers who have been probing the sensational Tutucorin Sathankulam custodial death case have been tested positive for the new Coronavirus disease in the last two days.

Two CBI personnel gave their swab samples at Madurai early this week since they had symptoms of COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the novel Coronavirus. A 49-year-old constable and a 29-year-old sub-inspector were announced positive and were taken to a quarantine facility in Madurai.

All the other CBI officials and also the accused who were under their custody for the interrogation were also been tested. As the results came on Friday morning, two more officials who are 34-year-old were tested positive for the viral infection.

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Shockingly, one suspended sub-inspector who is the accused in the case who was in the custody is also been tested positive, he is been moved to a quarantine center at Madurai. He is a 54-year-old sub-inspector who was arrested when the second set of arrests took place in the case when the State's CBCID was probing it. He was at the Madurai central prison when he was tested positive and was also questioned by the CBI team and hence is the source of the infection is yet to be ascertained.

Other teammates have been asked to be in the quarantine for the while even if their test results were negative, samples of other accused have been taken and the jail cell of the infected accused was also fumigated.

After the massive public outrage on alleged police brutality resulting in the death of vendors Jayaraj and his son Benniks, the CBI got into the action as soon as it received the notification from the Centre to proceed with its investigation and had dispatched a team from its special crime unit of Delhi to enquire the case.

(Representative image: PTI)

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