India Tomorrow
PATNA/NEW DELHI, APRIL 15—The Bihar police have arrested 57 foreign nationals for violating visa rules and sent them to jail.
All of them, according to police, had attended the Tablighi Jamaat ‘ijtema’ or congregation at Hazrat Nizamuddin in New Delhi and fanned into different areas of Bihar.
Police said that they were first detained and quarantined for 14 days and then tested for coronavirus. They have all been found corona negative and now sent to jail.
According to police, all of them had come on tourist visa but were indulging in religious preaching in different mosques which was not allowed under visa rules.
Any foreigner willing to do preaching work must obtain a visa for this purpose. A senior police official said that the foreigners arrested for violating the visa norms could be jailed for a maximum period of five years.
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These foreigners were arrested in Patna, Buxar, Kishanganj and Araria. While 17 were arrested from Patna, 18 from Araria and 11 each from Kishanganj and Buxar.
The arrested foreigners are of Malaysian, Indonesian and Bangladeshi nationalities.
Earlier on March 23, the Bihar police arrested 17 other foreigners, all connected with Tablighi Jamaat, on charges of violating visa rules. They were also sent to jail after they tested coronavirus Covid-19 negative.
In UP, a total of 17 foreign members of Tablighi Jamaat were arrested from Bahraich and sent to jail on April 12, after 14 days of quarantining when they were found negative for Covid-19.
