UP govt slaps NSA on Jamaat members for ‘misbehaviour’

LUCKNOW: Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Friday ordered slapping of the stringent National Security Act (NSA) on some Tablighi Jamaat members for

LUCKNOW: Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Friday ordered slapping of the stringent National Security Act (NSA) on some Tablighi Jamaat members for their alleged indecent behaviour at a Ghaziabad hospital, where they were quarantined for attending a gathering at the group’s headquarters in Delhi that this week emerged as a Covid-19 hotspot. The NSA allows detention of people considered security risks without charges or trial for up to one year.

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“They will not obey the law. Neither will they accept the system as they are the enemies of humanity. Whatever they have done to women health workers in Ghaziabad is a heinous crime. They are being slapped with the NSA. We will not spare them,” said Adityanath in a statement.

The Jamaat members, who have been accused of “moving without their pants, singing indecent songs and demanding bidi and cigarettes”, were shifted from the hospital to a temporary isolation ward at an educational institute for the alleged misbehaviour with nurses.

The men were identified and quarantined as part of a nationwide manhunt launched this week for thousands of people who had attended the gathering at the Jamaat’s headquarters in New Delhi.

Officials said the government will not deploy women health workers and policewomen at hospitals where patients linked to Jamaat are admitted to across Uttar Pradesh. As many as 897 Jamaat members have been quarantined at different facilities across the state.

Ghaziabad district hospital’s chief medical superintendent on Thursday wrote a letter to police complaining about the Jamaat members’ behaviour. Staff nurses of this hospital have informed vide their letter dated April 1 that coronavirus infected patients linked to the Jamaat were moving without their pants and singing indecent songs. They are demanding ‘bidi’ and cigarettes from the hospital employees and staff nurses,’’ said the letter, (a copy of which HT has seen?). “Under such a situation, their treatment is not possible in this hospital. You are requested to take effective action at your level to restrain them to ensure their medical treatment.”

Ghaziabad’s senior police superintendent Kalanidhi Naithani said stringent action will be initiated against the Jamaat members and a case has been registered against them. He said an investigation is in progress.

Officials said the NSA will also be slapped on people who attack police enforcing the 21-day lockdown imposed last week to prevent the spread of coronavirus pandemic.

Adityanath cited an attack on doctors involved in Covid-19 contact tracing in Indore and directed authorities that such incidents should not happen in Uttar Pradesh.

There have been reports of several attacks on police enforcing the lockdown in Uttar Pradesh. “The police are doing their duty by preventing people from coming out during the lockdown. There have been incidents in the state in which policemen were attacked by people. To deter such persons, it has been decided to invoke the NSA against such persons,” an Uttar Pradesh home department official told news agency Press Trust of India.

(With agency inputs)