The Delhi Police filed 12 fresh charge-sheets naming 541 foreign nationals in connection with the Tablighi Jamaat case. According to the police, they have been charged under the Indian Penal Code (IPC), the Epidemic Diseases Act, the Disaster Management Act, 2005, and also for violating prohibitory orders under section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC). Violation of visa rules has been included in the charge-sheet. The government has already blacklisted these persons.
A voluminous bunch of charge-sheets containing 12,000 pages was filed before Metropolitian Magistrate Tanya Bemniwal. The hearing on this has been fixed for June 29. By now, the Crime Branch has named more than 900 foreign nationals in the case.
These persons were held from Banglewali Masjid in Delhi’s Hazrat Nizamuddin on March 13. A large number of foreign nationals had participated in it, flouting section 144.
“These foreign nationals had entered India on tourist visa and participated in the Markaz. In addition to violating visa provisions, they also led to a situation where a highly infectious disease spread and threatened the lives of inmates as well as the general public,” the Crime Branch told a Delhi court on Tuesday.
The Delhi Police had contacted the Tablighi Jamaat authorities and one Mufti Shahzad was apprised of the situation arising out of Covid-19. He was asked to take immediate action for preventing the spread and was directed to send the foreigners back to their countries and Indians to their native places.
“However, no one paid any heed,” the investigating agency told the court. “They deliberately, wilfully, negligently and malignantly disobeyed the lawful directions promulgated in this regard. Written notices were also issued to Maulana Muhammad Saad Kandhlawi (Tablighi Jamaat head) and the Markaz management,” the police said in the report.
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