Management of gurdwara in Majnu Ka Tila booked

On Tuesday night, the police had received information regarding a gathering of around 300 people at the gurdwara in Majnu ka Tila.

Police on Thursday registered a case against the management of the gurdwara in Majnu Ka Tila for violating prohibitory orders and the 21-day lockdown norms, after 227 persons from Punjab were evacuated from there on Wednesday to prevent the spread of the Sars-Cov-2 virus which causes Covid-19. They were later shifted to two quarantine centres in the city.

President of the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) Manjinder Singh Sirsa speaks to the media after over 200 people who were stranded at Majnu Ka Tilla Gurudwara since March 28th due the lockdown, were moved to a school in Nehru Vihar by the Delhi Police. (Mohd Zakir/ Hindustan Times)

On Tuesday night, the police had received information regarding a gathering of around 300 people at the gurdwara in Majnu ka Tila. Upon confirming the information, the Delhi government was intimated and 227 migrants, who were from Punjab, but working in Delhi-NCR, were evacuated on Wednesday.

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Police said the first information report (FIR) has been registered under sections 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant), 269 (negligent act likely to spread infection of disease danger­ous to life), and 270 (malignant act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life) of the Indian Penal Code.

“The FIR was registered following the instructions of the Delhi government since the gurdwara committee did not inform the police or the concerned subdivisional magistrate about the mass gathering of people at the gurdwara. The management officials violated the government orders that banned the gathering of five or more people in any place to avoid the spread of the coronavirus,” a senior police officer, on condition of anonymity, said.

“There were chances of people getting infected, as maintaining social distancing was not possible at the religious place. The management committee should have informed the police or government authorities and got the migrants staying at the gurdwara isolated,” the officer added.

Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) president, Manjinder Singh Sirsa, said, “This is a desperate attempt to malign the services done by Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committe and the Sikhs across India and the world. What was our fault? We did not organise any religious gathering or congregation at the gurdwara. Those staying there were all stranded migrants.”

“Through tweets and videos I had requested the Punjab and Delhi government to help those migrants. Blame us if we were doing anything illegal. Moreover, it is the same gurdwara, which we had offered to the Delhi goverment a fortnight ago to use it as a quarantine centre to fight coronavirus outbreak. Instead of shifting 200 plus migrants to schools, they should have been isolated in the bigger halls at the gurdwara itself,” Sirsa said.