Bengaluru Police chief's office sealed as constable tests Covid-19 positive

The office of the Anti-Corruption Bureau was closed down on Friday. DH PHOTO/Janardhan B K

Having forced police stations to be sealed down, novel coronavirus has now forced the city police commissioner’s office to be shut after a constable working in the building tested positive.

The commissioner’s office located on Infantry Road has been sealed from June 27 to 29 after a constable belonging to the City Armed Reserve working at the Anti-Terrorism Cell (ATC) contracted the disease.

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Additional Commissioner of Police (Administration) Hemant Nimbalkar passed the seal-down order after learning about the constable testing positive for Covid-19. Accordingly, no staffer or member of the public can enter the premises of the commissioner’s office for the next three days, except the staff working for the police control room and Dial 100.

On Friday, as many as 16 policemen from the city police, the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB), the Central Crime Branch (CCB), the Karnataka State Reserve Police (KSRP), the Home Guards and the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) tested positive.

Fighting the virus on the frontline for months, police personnel are worried about the daily rise in the number of infections among their colleagues. Four women — a personal assistant to a senior KSRP officer, a sub-inspector, a constable from City Market and a head constable from Kengeri traffic — also tested positive.

Also contracting the infection were two City Market constables, an ACB head constable who is a gunman to an IGP, a head constable from HAL, a constable and a home guard from Chamarajpet, an ASI from Kengeri, a head constable from Malleswaram traffic, a CID sub-inspector, a CAR constable attached with the CCB, a home guard from Bandepalya and two criminal suspects detained by Nandini Layout police.