Even as the financial hub of the country, Mumbai, staggers under a steep surge of the Wuhan Coronavirus cases, 10 foreign nationals from Indonesia, who had attended the Tablighi Jamaat event at Markaz Nizamuddin in mid-March were arrested from the city under relevant IPC sections after completion of their quarantine period.
The arrested 10 Indonesians were a part of 12 Tablighi Jamaat members from Indonesia who were staying at an apartment in Mumbai’s Bandra West from the 29th of March after attending the Jamaat meet, an official privy to the details of the arrest said. The official added that the police came to know about Tablighi Jamaat members staying in Bandra only on the 1st of April. “We discovered that they had travelled to India in two groups on February 29 and March 3 and later visited the Markaz for the congregation,” he said.
Raising alarm about the possible spread of the virus in the city, the official said that though the Jamaat members had reached Mumbai on March 7, they hunkered down in an apartment only on March 29, implying that they might have been wandering around the city during the 22 days. “During their medical examination, two members of the 12-member group tested positive for coronavirus, following which 10 others were placed under quarantine for a period of 20 days. They were arrested on Wednesday (April 22),” he said.
They are arrested under sections 188 (Disobedience to order duly promulgated by a public servant), 269 (Negligent act likely to spread infection of disease that is dangerous to life) and 270 (Malignant act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), and under relevant provisions of the Epidemic Diseases Act. They were brought before the Bandra court on April 23 which sent them in the custody of the Bandra police.
Mumbai has emerged as the potent coronavirus hotspots in the country, with the number of cases registered in the financial capital is witnessing a sudden uptick. According to the latest statistics, the total number of positive coronavirus in the metropolis stands at 5407 and the overall death toll at 204.
Tablighi Jamaat meet-a super-spreader of coronavirus
The Tablighi Jamaat time bomb erupted across the country in the last week of March when around 200 people with Wuhan Coronavirus symptoms were admitted to various hospitals in Delhi from the Markaz Nizamuddin and surrounding places. Subsequently, the area around the Markaz Nizamuddin was cordoned off by the Delhi Police. Soon, cases began to erupt across the country with links to the Tablighi Jamaat and the country stood horrified as the magnitude of the Islamic Missionary organization’s transgressions became known.
Soon enough, it became known that around two thousand people, quite possibly a lot more, had attended the event and as late as the 22nd of March, 2500 people were present at the premises of the Markaz Nizamuddin and around 1500 of them left the place on the 23rd of March. Even so, it meant that around a thousand people were still stuck at the global headquarters of the Tablighi Jamaat as of the 24th of March. Since then, it has been a continuous series of escalations and atrocious conduct by the members of the Jamaat who have made things difficult for the administration and the healthcare providers at every step along the way.
