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Charge sheets filed against 82 foreign Jamaat participants
Police said that the Central government has cancelled the visa of the 82 foreigners and blacklisted them.
New Delhi: Delhi Police on Tuesday filed 20 charge sheets against 82 foreigners who allegedly attended a religious congregation organised in March by the Tablighi Jamaat, an Islamic missionary group, at its headquarters in New Delhi’s NIzamuddin area, in violation of their visa conditions and the Indian government’s guidelines on the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) outbreak.
Police said that the Central government has cancelled the visa of the 82 foreigners and blacklisted them.
The headquarters, known as the Markaz, went on to emerge as the biggest Covid-19 cluster in India, leading to a spurt in the rate of infection in the city.
The charge sheets, running to 15,499 pages, were submitted in the afternoon before duty magistrate Saema Jamil at the Saket court by the crime branch. The court is expected to decide on cognizance of the charge sheets on June 12.
A charge sheet is a document that mentions charges and evidence collected against people accused of committing an offence. The court starts a trial only after taking cognizance of the charge sheet.
The 82 foreigners against whom the police filed the charge sheet are from 20 different countries. They include 14 from Fiji, 10 from Saudi Arabia, eight Algerians and seven each from Brazil and China, six each from Sudan and the Philippines, five from the US, and four from Afghanistan.
Police also filed charge sheet against two each from Australia, Kazakhistan, Morocco and the UK and one each from Ukraine, Egypt, Russia, Belgium, Jordan, France and Tunisia.
They all have been booked under Section 14 (b) of the Foreigners Act, Section 3 of the Epidemic Disease Act, 51 of the Disaster Management Act and four sections of the Indian Penal Code, 188, 269, 270 and 271, for violating visa conditions, lockdown rules, spreading the virus, and breaking quarantine rule, Delhi Police said in a statement.
“These foreign nationals had entered India on tourist visa and had participated in the Markaz illegally. In addition to violating the provisions of visa, these foreign nationals also led to a situation where a highly infectious disease such as coronavirus (Covid-19) infection spread and threatened the lives of the inmates and the general public at large,” the police statement read.
The punishment for various offences under the penal provisions ranges from six months to eight years of imprisonment.
More than 900 foreign nationals belonging to 34 different countries have been questioned in the case after they purportedly attended the religious congregation despite having entered the country on a tourist visa, the conditions of which prohibits the visa holder from engaging in any missionary activities, crime branch officials associated with the probe said.
“The charge sheets have been filed against 82 foreigners since there were enough evidence against them. Charge sheets are being prepared against other foreign nationals, who are accused in the case, country-wise. The remaining charge sheets will be submitted in the next few days,” said a senior crime branch official, requesting anonymity.
The HC was also informed by advocate Rahul Mehra, standing counsel of the Delhi government (criminal), that more charge sheets would be filed within this week against the foreigners.
The crime branch had filed a criminal case against Tablighi Jamat chief Maulana Saad and six other top officials on March 31 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 some of the attendees of the religious congregation died due to the virus. Police are yet to summon Saad for interrogation, but have got a lookout notice issued against him to prevent him from leaving the country.
More than 2,300 people, including foreigners, were evacuated from the Tablighi Jamaat headquarters in March-end and lodged in various quarantine facilities in Delhi by the authorities. Many other foreigners were found staying in different religious and residential buildings across the city.
