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HomeIndia10 days after Tablighi leader 'disappeared', lawyer says he's in self-quarantine, not...

10 days after Tablighi leader ‘disappeared’, lawyer says he’s in self-quarantine, not hiding

According to the lawyer, the Tablighi Jamaat leader Mohammad Saad will join the police investigation after 14 April.

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New Delhi: Tablighi Jamaat leader Mohammad Saad has quarantined himself in southeast Delhi and will join the investigation after 14 April, when the nationwide lockdown is scheduled to end, ThePrint has learnt.

“To say that Mohammad Saad has gone into hiding will be wrong. He has quarantined himself and will be available for investigation in the coming days,” Tauseef Khan, Saad’s lawyer said.

“The sections that have been put against him and others are all bailable offences. There is no need for anticipatory bail in any of those, and we are ready to join the investigation, so there is no question of anyone going into hiding,” he said.

The Tablighi Jamaat was thrust into the national spotlight after a congregation it held last month resulted in a mass spread of the highly infectious Covid-19 disease. In the national capital itself, 430 of the 720 cases are related to event, according to the latest health bulletin by the Delhi government.

The congregation had thousands in attendance, including foreigners from South Asia, making the event the largest known vector for the novel coronavirus in the region.


Also read: ‘Thoughtless classification’ of Covid-19 data fuelling Islamophobia: Delhi minorities panel


Police FIR against Saad

Saad and seven others were named in an FIR lodged by Delhi Police Crime Branch on 31 March. The FIR is based on a complaint by Station House Officer, Nizamuddin, for violating government orders and holding a congregation at the Markaz mosque in Delhi, despite the Covid-19 threat.

The cleric and six others were booked under sections of the Epidemic Diseases Act, Disaster Management Act, and five sections of the Indian Penal Code, including criminal conspiracy.

The Delhi Police has also sent a notice to Saad under Section 91 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, asking him to furnish all documents relevant to the investigation.

The FIR states that on 21 March the police contacted the Tablighi leadership and reminded them of the government’s order and also requested them to not host the congregation, but the organisation went ahead with the programmw anyway.

The nationwide lockdown was imposed on 25 March. A few days later, Saad fell off the radar.


Also read: Call it a mistake, not conspiracy against India, say Muslim scholars on Tablighi Jamaat event


PFI-Tablighi link & CAA protests

According to a Delhi police source, they are also investigating the source of funds for the Tablighi Jamaat’s events being organised, and their link to the Popular Front of India (PFI).

In January this year, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had submitted a report to the Ministry of Home Affairs stating that the PFI — a Kerala-headquartered Muslim organisation — mobilised money to “finance the cost of demonstrations and gherao against the CAA Bill till 6 January 2020”.

ED had claimed that the agency came across bank account details to suggest that Rs 120.5 crore was credited to accounts related to the PFI and that there is a direct correlation between the dates of deposits/withdrawals from these accounts and the dates of demonstrations against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in different parts of the country.

The Crime Branch now has sent a detailed questionnaire to the Tablighi Jamaat, not just on the congregation and its participants, but also sought details of the organisation’s income tax returns of the last three years, bank account statements and relevant PAN numbers.

“This information is required to know where the funds of these events were being arranged from. The investigation is underway,” a senior police officer said.


Also read: Tablighi Jamaat event attendees are like human bombs, must be traced & treated: Fadnavis


 

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