Handover Gauri Lankesh murder case to Modi govt’s agency: BJP

Newsroom, Apr 22: Dozens of Tablighi Jamaat members from across the country who have been successfully recovered and have now tested negative for the novel coronavirus have come forward and donate their plasma for the treatment of Covid-19 patients.

The Tablighis from Tamil Nadu were the first to take this decision. According to them, apart from helping the critically ill patients to recover from COVID-19, was to counter the ‘baseless accusations’ that Tablighis were responsible for the spread of the virus following the religious congregation of the sect held at Delhi’s Nizamuddin area last month.

Mohammad Abbas, a thirty-eight year old businessman from Tiruppur was on Sunday discharged from Coimbatore’s ESI hospital. “As soon as I got discharged, I met the district administration officials and the dean of the hospital and told them that they may contact me anytime if they needed me to donate my plasma,” Abbas was quoted as saying by an English daily.

“It has only been one day since I was discharged but I’ve already spoken to others (from the Jamaat) who have recovered and they were all ready to donate,” he added. 

Leader's call

Maulana Saad Kandhalvi, a prominent leader of Tablighi Jamaat, who has been booked by the Delhi Police for holding a religious congregation, too has appealed to coronavirus survivors to donate blood plasma for infected people.

In a letter issued on Tuesday, Saad said most of the members who were quarantined did not have any infection and they tested negative for COVID-19.

"Even from amongst the ones who tested positive for the disease, a majority of them have now undergone treatment and are now cured while I and a few others are still under quarantine.

"It is required that such people who are now cured of this disease should donate blood plasma to others who are still fighting the disease and are under treatment," he said.

He also has urged the followers of the organisation to pray at home in the month of Ramadan instead of going to mosques. 

Plasma therapy

Convalescent Plasma Therapy is an experimental procedure for COVID-19 patients.

In this therapy, the antibodies of a person who has recovered from the virus are taken and transfused into a sick person (having the virus) to help boost the person’s immune system.

The recovered COVID-19 patient’s blood develops antibodies to battle against COVID-19.

Once the blood of the first patient is infused to the second patient, those antibodies will start fighting against the coronavirus in the second person.

The process for donating plasma is similar to donating blood and takes about an hour.

Several countries around the world including the United Kingdom and the United States have also started plasma therapy trials.

In India, several states like Kerala, Gujarat and Punjab have already started using Plasma Therapy for the corona-infected patients.

Thiruvananthapuram, Feb 17: Out of the total 418 samples of suspect coronavirus cases sent for testing to National Institute of Virology from Kerala, 405 have come out as negative, while the results for the rest, barring three, are awaited.

"Out of three persons in whom the disease was confirmed, two persons have been discharged. One person is stable and the repeat sample results are awaited," according to a release by the Health and Family Welfare Department of the Kerala government.

The release added that till Sunday a total of 2,276 people have been placed under surveillance, "out of which 2262 are under home isolation and 14 are admitted in designated isolation facilities."

The health condition of all symptomatic people under isolation is stable, according to the release.

The release added that the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (Centre) has informed the Kerala government that 115 people belonging to Kerala are currently in quarantine in two camps in Delhi.

These 115 people have been tested and found negative for coronavirus and they will be allowed to travel back to Kerala on Monday evening.

The people have been requested to remain in home isolation upon their return.

New Delhi, Jun 8: Two civil defence employees have been arrested by the Rajasthan Police today in Jaipur based on Military Intelligence (MI) inputs that they had been passing on sensitive information to Pakistan's spy agency ISI.

The arrested are: Vikas Kumar (29), a civil defence employee at an army ammunition depot near Shri Ganganagar (Rajasthan) and Chiman Lal (22), a civil contractual employee of the army's Mahajan Field Firing Range (MFFR), Bikaner. 

Both were working as espionage agents on behalf of Pakistan's intelligence agency and were giving out details of Ammunition and MFFR, vital military installations in India's Western front. 

The MI Lucknow's operation named Desert Chase assumes great importance as the Shri Ganganagar Ammunition Depot and Bikaner MMFR are strategically important military installations on the western front along the Pakistan border.

The work on the "operation" began in August 2019, when the MI Lucknow, through its sleuths, learnt about an espionage agent near Sri Ganganagar who was passing military information to his handlers in Pakistan. The individual was identified as Vikas Kumar - the civil defence employee at an army ammunition depot near Sri Ganganagar.

The MI Lucknow shared the case with UP ATS in the month of January 2020. Vikas's activities were monitored and analysed by a joint team of MI Lucknow and UP ATS. The operation was code-named 'Desert Chase'.

Based on these, it was learnt that Vikas is acquiring photos of a "water distribution register" at a water point/pump house in MFFR through a contractual civil employee named Chiman Lal. The development of the case was halted due to the start of the lockdown period all across the country.

Finally, the case shared with Rajasthan Police Intelligence in the first week of May 2020. A joint team was formed between Rajasthan Police-Intelligence and MI Lucknow.

Fresh leads were found as new payments were detected along with a trail of sensitive information being passed on to Pakistan by two accused.  

Vikas Kumar confessed to having passed the following information to Pakistan:

•    Details received from Chiman Lal about Army units and their strength coming to MFFR.
•    Details of ammunition coming to his ammunition depot including their type, quantity, mode of transportation, date of arrival on a routine basis (almost every time it came to his notice).
•    Details of ammunition (to include their type, quantity and mode/date of transportation) further distributed/transferred to local army establishments/units (including two local brigades) and elsewhere from his ammunition depot.
•    ORBAT (Order of battle; composition related details) of two local army brigades and all changes in them as they came to his notice.
•    Name, rank and personality traits of some Senior Military Officers in the two army brigades nearby, his ammunition depot and others who visited the military station.
•    Photos of arms, ammunition, tanks other military vehicles (with their tactical numbers) at MFFR whenever he could visit it after April 2019.

Vikas also confessed to having received at least Rs 75,000 in total from his Pakistani handler for the information he has shared during this entire period. He used to receive them mostly on bank accounts of his and his brother, Hemant Kumar. The latter was found to have no links to the espionage case otherwise. Out of this sum, he had paid approximately Rs 9,000 in total to Chiman Lal for his assistance in lots of Rs 1000- Rs 2000 since their first meet.