Six who attended congregation at Markaz died in Delhi and Haryana: Police charge sheet

Various agencies had mounted a rescue operation to remove over 2,300 people from the Markaz after several who had allegedly attended a religious congregation there returned to their respective home states and were tested positive for the virus.

Six people, including a foreigner, had died due to the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) during treatment at hospitals in Delhi, Haryana and at a quarantine facility after being rescued from the Tablighi Jamaat headquarters, known as the Markaz, in Nizamuddin during the lockdown in March-end, the Delhi Police have told a Delhi court, in a charge sheet filed in May.

Six people, including a foreigner, had died due to the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) during treatment at hospitals in Delhi, Haryana and at a quarantine facility after being rescued from the Tablighi Jamaat headquarters.(Sanjeev Verma/HT photo)

Various agencies had mounted a rescue operation to remove over 2,300 people from the Markaz after several who had allegedly attended a religious congregation there returned to their respective home states and were tested positive for the virus. Seven deaths, six of which were in Telangana alone, were also reported.

The deaths prompted the authorities to take measures to prevent the spread of the virus and file a criminal case against the Tablighi Jamaat chief Maulana Saad and six other office bearers, for defying a series of government directives, which curbed religious and large gatherings, issued to contain the spread of Covid-19 in the national capital. Charges of culpable homicide not amounting to murder and criminal conspiracy were added to the case after the deaths of some of the attendees. No arrests have been made in the case, so far.

Advocate Fuzail Ayubi, counsel for the Markaz, said that the assumption of the investigating agency to charge his clients for 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) is completely “Misplaced” “The section 304 could not have been applied here in these circumstances and the assumption of the investigating agency is completely misplaced,” he said.

According to the charge sheet filed in the case in the Saket court, the city police have said that during investigation it was found that six persons who were part of the religious congregation at the Markaz had lost their lives at the Lok Nayak hospital, a quarantine centre in Sultanpuri and AIIMS, Jhajjar.

“As per the certificates issued by the concerned doctors, their deaths had occurred due to corona virus infection,” the charge sheet read.

While Yousuf Sahibu (36) from Tamil Nadu died on March 31 at AIIMS, Jhajjar, and Modokulov Maksat (38), from Kyrgyzstan died at the same hospital on April 13. Two persons from Tamil Nadu—Majeeth Mustafa (68) and Thathkir Pichaikani (64) died at the Lok Nayak Hospital in Central Delhi, on April 9 and March 29 respectively.

Another Tamil Nadu resident Mohammad Mustafa,60, had also died during treatment at the quarantine centre in Sultanpuri on April 22, the charge sheet says. The casualties also include a Delhi resident, Mohammad Aslam Abbasi (74) who died at the Lok Nayak hospital on March 31.

The police have filed charge sheets against more than 900 foreigners and charged them for allegedly attending the religious congregation organised in March by the Tablighi Jamaat headquarters, in violation of their visa conditions and the Indian government’s guidelines on the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) outbreak.

In the charge sheet filed, the police said that the foreigners accepted that they had attended the religious congregation for the purpose of professing and propagating the principles and doctrines of the Tablighi Jamaat and had remained at its headquarters (Markaz) for some period.

“In order to ascertain their visit to Banglewali Masjid, Hazrat Nizamuddin, Delhi the register maintained at the Banglewali Masjid was taken into police possession, which further confirms their visit, including their name, country, passport number, period of stay and date of expiry of visa,” the police said.

The police also added that in order to substantiate the legitimacy of their visit to India, passports of 723 foreigners and Identity Cards of 23 Nepal nationals have been taken into possession through seizure/handing over memos.

“Some of the accused foreign nationals were unable to provide / produce their passports. Despite efforts their passports could not be taken over till now. Hence, passport numbers of these foreign nationals have not been mentioned against their respective names and country of origin in the list of accused persons,” it added.