Police Arrest Coaching Centre Owner After Finding 555 Students During Raid

Ahmedabad:

A coaching centre owner in Gujarat's Rajkot district's Jasdan town was arrested on Monday for allegedly violating COVID-19 norms after cops found more than 550 students in his premises during a search, according to police. 

The raid occurred on Sunday, and its owner, 39-year-old Jaysukh Sankhalva, was arrested on Monday, according to Rajkot Superintendent of Police Balram Meena. 

"He was arrested under IPC and Epidemic Diseases Act provisions for disobeying police notification on COVID-19 norms as well as for negligent act which may spread infection. The children have been handed over to their parents," he said.

According to the police, Sankhalva operates a coaching center/hostel that provides instruction to students taking the entrance exams for Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya and Balachadi Sainik School. 

"Based on a tip off, we raided the premises and found 555 students between the age of 9-10 taking tuition. These children were not wearing masks nor was social distancing being maintained. The centre was functioning despite the state government's ban on classroom teaching due to the COVID-19 outbreak," Jasdan police station sub inspector JH Sisodiya said. 

Prior to his arrest, Sankhalva told reporters that the students had been staying in his hostel with parental consent since May 15. 

"Most of them are supposed to appear for Navodaya Vidyalaya entrance test, which got postponed. The parents of these children asked me to keep them in the hostel rather than send them home," he claimed. 

Gujarat reported 3,124 fresh COVID cases in the last 24 hours taking the total tally of COVID-19 cases in the state to 7.92 lakhs. With 45 new COVID-19 induced fatalities, Gujarat's death toll now stands at 9,621. 

Yesterday, India recorded around 1,96,000 new cases of the novel coronavirus, making it the lowest cases recorded in a day in this month.

According to data updated on Tuesday by the Union Health Ministry, the regular count of coronavirus cases in the country dropped below 2 lakh for the first time in over a month, bringing the total number of COVID-19 cases to 2,69,48,874 and the death count to 3,07,231.

In one day, there were 1,96,427 new coronavirus infections recorded. With 3,511 deaths, the nation had its lowest death toll in 21 days. 

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