India Tomorrow
NEW DELHI, JUNE 28—The Delhi police chargesheet in the Tablighi Jamaat congregation at Markaz Nizamuddin has said that some of foreign Tablighis from Malaysia and Indonesia have “acted as coronavirus carriers”.
“It is needless to point out that some of these foreigners have acted as carriers of the highly infections coronavirus and had thus brought over the infection from their respective countries to India”, The Indian Express quoted the chargesheet in a report published in its June 28 edition.
The chargesheet, accrording to the report, says that the Tablighi Jamaat gathering in Malaysia took place between February 27 and March 1 and this resulted in 500 Covid positive cases in Malaysia.
The gathering in Indonesia was, however, cancelled on March 18 in the wake of concerns raised over the Covid outbreak that had killed 25 people and infected 309 people in Indonesia.
As the Tablighi Jamaat event took place after the gathering in Malaysia and Indonesia, the chargesheet says that the foreign Tablighis from the two countries as also from other countries acted as carriers of coronavirus.
According to the chargesheet, the South district administrative officials contacted the Markaz authorities for the first time on Marhc and advised them to follow “social distancing” norms after an Indonesian national was found to be corona positive in Telangana.
It was on March 19 also that the Delhi police contacted Markaz official Haji Yunus to ensure that the gathering did not exceed 20.
The chargesheet says that the Delhi police on March 21 asked Mufti Shahzad of Tablighi Markaz to send foreign nationals back to their respective countries and Indians to their native states and hometowns.
“But no one at the Markaz Nizamuddin paid any heed to these lawful directions”, The Indian Express quotes from the chargesheet.
Meanwhile, lockdown was imposed from might of March 24.
A medical team visited the Markaz Nizamuddin on March 25 and found 526 foreign nationals and 1183 Indians. One of the foreigners, a Bangladeshi national, was found having Covid symptoms.
SHO of Hazrat Nizamuddin Police Station on March 28 submitted a written complaint regarding alleged violation of the prohibitory orders by Markaz chief Maulana Mohammed Saad and Markaz management.
But a lawyer fighting cases of Tablighi Jamaat said that Tablighi Jamaat members were self-isolated in Nizamuddin.
However, the chargesheet does not mention anything about how many people from abroad landed in Delhi after the warnings issued about coronavirus outbreak in the country. And whether they were screened at the airport or not? Were they kept in self-quarantine or institutional quarantine to prevent spread of the disease?
