2 Bengaluru residents who visited China kept under medical supervision
Bengaluru, Jan 27: As part of preventive steps in the backdrop of coronavirus outbreak in China, two city residents who returned from the neighbouring country about ten days ago have been kept under medical supervision at a hospital, the Karnataka Health Department said on Monday.
Another person who was admitted for medical supervision three days ago had been discharged after he tested negative for the deadly virus, which has claimed 80 lives with 2,744 confirmed cases in China so far, the department added.
The two locals, who returned from China on January 18, came to the hospital on Sunday night after developing cold and their samples would be sent to a laboratory in Pune for tests, officials said without divulging any further information about them.
Besides these cases, six passengers -- four Chinese and two Indians -- are under 28-day house quarantine and they are asymptomatic, a statement from the department said.
Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan has urged passengers who have a travel history to China since January 1 this year to report to their nearest health facility if they experience any symptoms such as fever, cough and respiratory distress.
The Airport Health Organisation, which is on the alert ever since the outbreak of the virus in China, said on Monday that none of the passengers who came from that country in the last 14 days were found to have contracted the disease.
No passengers are reported positive with thermal scanning and having history of visit to Wuhan city in the last 14 days, the KIA unit of the APHO, a central government organisation, said in a separate statement.
According to APHO, in the last six days as many as 2,572 people, including 392 in the past one day, were screened using thermal scanning.
The Corona virus has created quite a scare across the globe after it hit people in Wuhan in China.
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Ashram Teacher, hailed as hero last year, booked for sexual abuse of minor boys
Ujjain: In September last year, a teacher at an Ujjain ashram “came to the aid” of a minor rape victim who was going door to door seeking help. The same teacher has now been arrested along with a caretaker for allegedly sexually abusing at least three minor boys at their ashram.
Three FIRs under relevant provisions of the IPC as well as under multiple sections of the POCSO Act have been registered by the police against the 21-year-old teacher, Rahul Sharma, and ashram caretaker Ajay Thakur. The police further informed that both have been sent to judicial custody, adding that there are many more victims who haven’t filed a complaint yet.
Ujjain SP Pradeep Sharma told The Indian Express: “So far three children have come forward and made the allegations. We have arrested two persons in this case.”
In September 2023, CCTV footage emerged of the minor girl, bleeding and partially clothed, after she was raped by an autorickshaw driver. The footage showed no one coming to her aid even as she walked around the area for an hour, with one resident even shooing her away.
Sharma had said he helped the girl after he spotted her outside the ashram. At the time, he had told The Indian Express: “This is a holy town, people here are supposed to be helpful, but no one helped her… there was no humanity.”
The police have ruled out any connection with the Ujjain rape case for now. “We sent through 200 CCTV videos and his role has so far been ruled out,” said a senior police officer. According to police, children from poor families were sent to be trained as pandits in this ashram, affiliated to the state Sanskrit board.
Around 10 days ago, a minor boy who was allegedly sexually assaulted by Thakur complained to his mother when he returned home. “The parents of the child came to the ashram. Then the ashram worker Thakur was sacked. Later, many more parents visited the ashram and levelled allegations,” said a senior officer.
The ashram authorities contacted police after several parents made allegations against Sharma and had a confrontation with the ashram official. An ashram official, Gajanand, said: “We called the police to help us but they arrested our staff. The allegations are false.”
However, the officer said: “When we arrived, we found that the ashram officials were the suspects. There are many more victims in this case and we tried to convince them to file a case. Policemen dressed in civil clothes also tried speaking to the children, but they refused as they were scared,” the officer said.
