Jailed Activist Umar Khalid Tests COVID Positive, Kept in Isolation in Tihar Jail

New Delhi- Ex-JNU student and activist, who is currently serving jail time for his involvement in the 2020 Delhi riots, has tested COVID-19 positive on Saturday following which is being kept in isolation within the Tihar Jail premises. 

The Tihar jail officials on Saturday confirmed that he tested coronavirus positive and is being kept in isolation. 

The 33-year-old jailed activists developed symptoms for the novel coronavirus following which an RT-PCR test was conducted for him. The report of the test came on Saturday, confirming that he is COVID-19 positive and since then he has been kept in isolation within the jail premises. Read more

The former Jawaharlal Nehru University student and a leader of the Democratic Students' Union (DSU) in JNU first came to the limelight for his alleged controversial involvement in the 2016 JNU sedition row where few JNU students organized a protest against the capital punishment delivered to Afzal Guru, who was convicted for the 2001 Indian parliament terror attack, and Maqbool Bhat, a Kashmiri separatist. Read more

Umar Khalid is currently serving jail time after being slapped by the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) law for his involvement in the 2020 Delhi riots which saw bloodshed, destruction of property, and rioting resulting in the death of 53 people in the North-East region of the national capital. 

In the meanwhile, India yet again witnessed a new highest single-day spike in the cases of the novel coronavirus as a deadly second wave sweeps the country with 3.52 Lakh New Cases and 2,812 Covid-induced fatalities, taking the total active caseload in the country to 28.07 lakh cases. So far, there have been 1.95 lakh covid-induced deaths from across the nation. The fresh surge in the cases of this deadly infectious disease takes the total tally of cases to 1.73 crores. Today marks the fifth consecutive day that India reported over 3 lakh cases on a daily basis. A staggering 10 lakh cases have been reported in the last 72 hours.Read more

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