Video: Bengaluru cops arrest 54 rioters from hot-spot area, but worry about infection

Bengaluru: Police came down hard post-midnight on the corona hotspot locality of Padarayanapura in Bengalru after local residents scuffled with medical staff and policemen to stop them from shifting coronavirus positive patients to quarantine.

After subduing the riot, police arrested 54 persons including a woman.

The authorities are, however, worried that policemen may have been at risk if there were corona positive people involved in the scuffling. Last week a policeman who was involved in a lathicharge at a mosque ended up covidpositive.

After the rioting in Padarayanapura last night, home minister Basavaraj Bommai had an elaborate meeting with chief minister B S Yediyurappa. Bengaluru police commissioner Bhaskar Rao too met the chief minister to brief him about the situation.

Considering the sensitivity of the issue, home minister Basavaraj Bommai visited Padarayanapura on Monday morning.

Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) and health department personnel have filed separate FIRs in connection with the incident.

Bommai pulled up DCP Ramesh Banoth for not being present at the time of shifting the coronaviru suspects to quarantine.

He also stated that police have been given a free hand to ensure shifting of every listed person to quarantine.

Soumendu Mukharjee, additional commissioner of police, who rushed to the Padarayanapura after violence broke out, said as many as 10 platoons of Karnataka State Reserve Police (KSRP) have been posted in the locality. 6 ACPs, 20 Inspectors and 25 PSIs and 220 civil police have been deputed for conducting operations in the area.

A strong posse went door to door after getting leads from CCTV and mobile phone footage to arrest 54 persons from the locality.

Police have readied a list of 100 persons who were involved in the violence. The arrested people have been placed under monitoring. The police and other staff who took part in the operations have been alert about symptoms and told to get sanitized.  

The riot began when BBMP medical staff accompanied by a police contingent tried to shift 20 persons who were listed as primary and secondary contacts of 12 persons who tested positive for the corona virus.

They got into a verbal spat and declared they won’t go to quarantine. The mob broke barricades erected to block entry into the hot spot locality, threw down the chairs and tent erected for health workers and policemen.