Thirty-four police personnel of Bhopal police tested positive for Wuhan coronavirus including some officers said a top official on Thursday.

The officials claimed that as per investigation, the initial infection is caused due to a policeman who went out in search of Tablighi Jamaat members who returned from Nizamuddin Markaz event of New Delhi.

Additional Director General of Bhopal Upendra Jain told PTI, “With a policeman in our cyber cell testing coronavirus positive this morning, 34 of our personnel, including officers, have been infected so far.”

Jain said, “After an analysis, we came to know that the virus found its way into the police force when our personnel went out to search for the people who had come to Bhopal after attending the congregation of Tablighi Jamaat in Delhi last month. As per the findings, there was no other source initially, except the Nizamuddin attendees, from whom they could have contracted the infection. The police went to the mosques under Jahangirabad and Ashbagh police stations towards the end of last month to look for the attendees.”

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He added further that 30-35 Jamaat members, including foreigners who came from Delhi, had tested positive for coronavirus. Jain said that one of the policemen contracted the virus as he was the part of the medical team visiting homes to check the virus spread. Few others got infected in the containment areas and during the general duty, but the virus crept into police force due to the Tablighi jamaat attendees.

Family members of police personnel are infected

Apart from the police personnel, 30 family members have been also tested positive, said the ADG. As per reports, around 2,100 police officers are not going back to their homes after duty hours so that their family members don’t get contracted by the virus.

ADG Jain informed that they have been put up in hotels and provided PPE kits, sanitizers and food. Jain said, “No policemen or their family member affected by the virus had history of travel abroad.”

Coronavirus cases exploded due to Tablighi Jamaat

The Tablighi Jamaat congregation, which took place in Nizamuddin Markaz in the first half of March, has become the mega-spreader of coronavirus in India, maximum cases in India are linked to that event now. The Muslims who had attended the event, and their family members and those who came into contact with them are testing positive regularly, contributing to the increase in the number of coronavirus cases in the country.

Tablighi Jamaat members have also been accused of misbehaving with healthcare workers, including molesting nurses and pelting stones at doctors and cops.