A day after filing 20 chargesheets against 82 foreign nationals who had attended the religious congregation at Nizamuddin Markaz here, the Delhi Police will file 15 more chargesheets against 294 foreigners on Wednesday.
They are booked for violating visa regulations and not adhering to the government advisory issued to contain the spread of novel Coronavirus, earlier in March. Belonging to 12 countries including Malaysia, Thailand, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, the Central Government has cancelled their visa and blacklisted these foreign Tablighi Jamaat members.
The accused Jamat members also violated the prohibitory orders issued under section 144 of the CrPC, says Delhi Police.
During the investigation, cops found that they 'acted negligently in a way that was likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life' and therefore, they were charged under section 269 Indian Penal Code (IPC) as well. Along with above-mentioned violations, these foreign nationals also disobeyed the quarantine rules, hence IPC section 271 was also invoked.
“They not just violated the visa nor but also led to a situation where Coronavirus infection spread and threatened the lives of the inmates and the general public,” the charge sheet stated. More than 900 foreign nationals, belonging to 34 different countries are accused in this case and so far, no one has been detained or arrested, police added.
As of now, police have accounted for 745 documents/passports of the foreign Jamaat members who came on tourist visas to attend the religious congregation.
However, the charge sheet was filed under section 14(b) Foreigners Act, section 3 of Epidemic Diseases Act, section 51 of Disaster Management Act and IPC sections 188, 269, 270, 271, while the further investigation in the case is underway.
Tablighi Jamaat holds a religious congregation at its New Delhi headquarters- Nizamuddin every year in early March, where thousands of people including senior preachers from Saudi Arabia, Malaysia and Indonesia come to attend the congregation. The event was said to have been a catalyst in the growing number of Covid-19 cases in India.
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