Delhi police have registered FIR against Tablighi Jamaat preacher Maulana Saad and other members of the outfit under section 3 of The Epidemic Diseases Act (1897) for organizing the congregation at the times of severe lockdown amidst the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak.
The event which gave rise to the numerous positive cases of coronavirus across states was organized in the mid-march. Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Tuesday claimed that 1,548 people were evacuated from the Markaz Tablighi Jamaat over the past three days. Out of these, 441 people were found with the symptoms of COVID-19 and have been isolated at the hospitals while others are quarantined.
Union Home Ministry said there were about 1,746 people staying in Hazrat Nizamuddin Markaz as of March 21, the area became a hotspot for the outbreak of coronavirus in India. Of these, 216 were foreigners and 1,530 were Indians. Additionally, about 824 foreigners had been engaged in Tablighi Jamaat activities in various parts of the country.
Read: The one true pandemic: How Tablighi Jamat has become the ‘super spreader’ for coronavirus in Asia
Union Home Ministry also said that the foreign Islamic preachers who visited India on a tourist visa but attended the Islamic religious conference organized by the “Tablighi Jamaat” are in violation of visa rules and almost 800 such Indonesian Islamic preachers, who attended the event, may now be blacklisted for breaking the visa rules.
On 21 March 1746 people had assembled for Tablighi Jamaat at Nizamuddin Markaz in South Delhi out of which around 1530 hailed from India and rest from the foreign.