Delhi Police files charge sheets against 292 foreign nationals in Tablighi Jamaat case

Filing the charge sheets, the Crime Branch official told the court that there are more than 900 accused in the case. The accused have been blacklisted & their visas are cancelled.

File photo of members of the Tablighi Jamaat being transported to various hospitals from the Nizamuddin Markaz in New Delhi for screening in April 2020 | Photo: Suraj Singh Bisht | ThePrint

New Delhi: The Crime Branch of Delhi Police on Wednesday filed 15 more charge sheets against 292 foreign nationals from 14 countries in a Saket district court in connection with the congregation at Markaz Tablighi Jamaat in the Nizamuddin area of the national capital.

The charge-sheets were filed before the court of Duty Metropolitan Magistrate Jitendra Pratap Singh in connection with the congregation, which had reportedly emerged as an epicentre for the spread of coronavirus in the country. The matter was listed for consideration of charge-sheets on June 17. The charge sheets run into around 13,070 pages.

Filing the charge sheets, the Crime Branch official told the court that there are more than 900 accused in the case. Today 15 charge sheets were filed against 292 foreign nationals from 14 countries, the court was informed.

The accused have been blacklisted and their visas are cancelled. There was a violation of visa rules as they came on tourist visas and were doing missionary work here in India, the Crime Branch official told the court.

Yesterday, the Crime Branch had filed 20 charge-sheets against 82 foreign nationals and more charge sheets are to be filed tomorrow, the court was informed by the Crime Branch.
The judge asked about the funding received by the organisation. The investigating officer told the court that ED and CBI are investigating the funding angle.

According to the charge-sheets, 80 of the foreign nationals are from Malaysia, 80 from Bangladesh, 44 from Myanmar, 39 from Thailand, 22 from Nepal, 17 from Sri Lanka, two OCI card holders from UK and Australia, two each from Djibouti and Kenya, one each from Mali, Nigeria, Tanzania, and South Africa.

Charge-sheets have been filed under Section 14 (b) Foreigners Act, 1946, Section 3 of The Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897, Section 51 of the Disaster Management Act, 2005 and Sections 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant), 269 (negligent act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life), 270 (Malignant act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life), 271 (disobedience to quarantine rule) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

All these foreign nationals are being charge-sheeted for violation of visa norms. The police said that they have already questioned all foreign nationals who attended the congregation.