Panic in Shimla, DGP and 30 other police officers quarantined after visitor dies of COVID-19

Panic gripped Shimla – the Queen of the Hills – after the chief of Himachal Pradesh police along with over 30 subordinates were home quarantined soon after news of the death of a Delhi-based individual who recently visited him owing to COVID-19 spread there on Tuesday afternoon.

The state police headquarters were sealed and the building was sanitised completely.

According to reports, an influential person from Delhi visited the office of Sanjay Kundu, who had taken over as the Director General of Police (DGP), Himachal Pradesh on June 1. Earlier,Kundu was holding the charge of Principal Secretary (excise, taxation and vigilance) and principal resident commissioner of Himachal Pradesh at New Delhi till May 31.

A press statement issued by an official spokesperson of Himachal Pradesh police informed: “On June 1, a person had visited the PHQ and travelled to Delhi on the same day. Now it has been reliably learnt that he tested positive for novel Coronavirus on June 8 in Delhi and passed away on June 9”.

The areas visited by the person in the police headquarters have been sealed and the building is being sanitised, he said.

“We are also having those officers and personnel who this person may have come in contact with tested. The officers and personnel tested will remain in self-quarantine till such time as their results come out negative,” the spokesperson added.

Sources in the police department disclosed that all officers who had come in contact with the infected person are being medically examined and have gone into self-quarantine. A team of doctors took swab samples of over two dozen police personnel at the police headquarters.

“All those who have been examined will remain in self-quarantine till their medical reports come,” the spokesperson said.

Meanwhile, the first COVID-19 report of Kundu came out negative this evening.

Nearly 200 police personnel are deployed at the police headquarters that also houses the offices of the Additional Director General (Law and Order, Additional DGP and IG (Armed Police and Training), IG (Headquarters), SP (Cyber Crime) and SP (Law and Order).

The police, however, was light-lipped whether the man was a resident of Delhi or Himachal Pradesh and how he managed to enter the state if he hailed from Delhi.

His entry to Himachal Pradesh and then return to Delhi by violating the mandatory COVID-19 guidelines when all its borders were sealed, has raised many eyebrows.

There are unconfirmed reports that the man also visited the HP Secretariat and to meet the Chief Minister too.