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Police said that the Central government has cancelled the visa of the 82 foreigners and blacklisted them.

The headquarters, known as the Markaz, went on to emerge as the biggest Covid-19 cluster in India, leading to a spurt in the rate of infection in the city.

The charge sheets, running to 15,499 pages, were submitted in the afternoon before duty magistrate Saema Jamil at the Saket court by the crime branch. The court is expected to decide on cognizance of the charge sheets on June 12. A charge sheet is a document that mentions charges and evidence collected against people accused of committing an offence. The court starts a trial only after taking cognizance of the charge sheet.

The 82 foreigners against whom the police filed the charge sheet are from 20 different countries. They include 14 from Fiji, 10 from Saudi Arabia, eight Algerians and seven each from Brazil and China, six each from Sudan and the Philippines, five from the US, and four from Afghanistan.

Police also filed charge sheet against two each from Australia, Kazakhistan, Morocco and the UK and one each from Ukraine, Egypt, Russia, Belgium, Jordan, France and Tunisia.

They all have been booked under Section 14 (b) of the Foreigners Act, Section 3 of the Epidemic Disease Act, 51 of the Disaster Management Act and four sections of the Indian Penal Code, 188, 269, 270 and 271, for violating visa conditions, lockdown rules, spreading the virus, and breaking quarantine rule, Delhi Police said in a statement.

“These foreign nationals had entered India on tourist visa and had participated in the Markaz illegally. In addition to violating the provisions of visa, these foreign nationals also led to a situation where a highly infectious disease such as coronavirus (Covid-19) infection spread and threatened the lives of the inmates and the general public at large,” the police statement read.

The punishment for various offences under the penal provisions ranges from six months to eight years of imprisonment.

More than 900 foreign nationals belonging to 34 different countries have been questioned in the case after they purportedly attended the religious congregation despite having entered the country on a tourist visa, the conditions of which prohibits the visa holder from engaging in any missionary activities, crime branch officials associated with the probe said. “The charge sheets have been filed against 82 foreigners since there were enough evidence against them. Charge sheets are being prepared against other foreign nationals, who are accused in the case, country-wise. The remaining charge sheets will be submitted in the next few days,” said a senior crime branch official, requesting anonymity.

The HC was also informed by advocate Rahul Mehra, standing counsel of the Delhi government (criminal), that more charge sheets would be filed within this week against the foreigners.

The crime branch had filed a criminal case against Tablighi Jamat chief Maulana Saad and six other top officials on March 31 for defying a series of government directives, which curbed religious and large gatherings, issued to contain the spread of Covid-19 in the national capital.

Charges of culpable homicide not amounting to murder and criminal conspiracy were added to the case after some of the attendees of the religious congregation died due to the virus. Police are yet to summon Saad for interrogation, but have got a lookout notice issued against him to prevent him from leaving the country.

More than 2,300 people, including foreigners, were evacuated from the Tablighi Jamaat headquarters in March-end and lodged in various quarantine facilities in Delhi by the authorities. Many other foreigners were found in religious and residential buildings across the city.

Devastated by cyclone Amphan almost a week ago, several villages on remote islands of the Sunderbans – the world’s largest mangrove delta and home to more than 4.5 million people – and cyclone hit coastal belt are now facing an acute water crisis. And, authorities don’t know by when the situation will become normal.

The storm has destroyed dozens of pipelines that supplied drinking water to the islands surrounded by rivers fed with saline tidal water from the sea, salt water from these rivers has gushed into the villages through breaches in the embankments filling up the sweet water ponds and hundreds of tube wells still remain inundated.

“Barely two months ago when I was in Delhi working as a maid in a house in Tughlaqabad area, I just had to pour water in my glass from a jug kept in the kitchen,

continued rainfall in northeastern parts of the country on account of Cyclon Amphan, the Central Water Commission has sounded a flood alert even as nearly 2 lakh people have been affected by flooding in 229 villages in seven districts of Assam.

Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA) said that villages in 17 revenue circles of Dhemaji, Lakhimpur, Darrang, Nalbari, Goalpara, Dibrugarh and Tinsukia have been affected by floods and nearly 9,000 villagers have been moved to 35 relief camps set up in some of these districts. Around 1007 hectares of fields have been submerged and 16,500 domestic animals and poultry have been affected, the ASDMA reported.

The CWC issued a severe flood situation alert for the Brahmaputra in Assam’s Neamati Ghat and Jiabharali in Jorhat and Sonitpur districts, respectively.

The highest flood level for the whenever I felt thirsty. But now I need to walk for nearly 30 minutes, stand in a queue behind more than 50 minutes, fill up a bucket and an earthen pitcher from the only functional tube well in the area and then walk back home,” said Swapna Sardar, 36, a resident of Rangabelia village in Gosaba, a block in South 24 Parganas district that has been totally devastated by the storm.

Hundreds of villages in South 24 Parganas and North 24 Parganas have been devastated. Many are still inundated. “There is an acute shortage of drinking water. We are providing water pouches. Huge drums filled with water are being distributed,” said Manturam Pakhira, Sunderban development affairs minister.

Locals said that in the villages dozens of tube wells have been defunct for a long time. While some have not been repaired since they were destroyed by Aila in May 2019, many others became defunct when cyclone Bulbul hit in November 2019.

Brahmaputra in the Jorhat stretch is 87.37m and the current level is 85.78m according to the bulletin issued on Tuesday. In Jiabharali, the highest flood level is 78.5m; currently, it’s at 77.36m.

Incessant rainfall in Arunachal Pradesh led to a landslide at Arzoo village in Dibang Valley district, killing three members of a family. Chief Minister Pema Khandu announced ex-gratia of Rs 4 lakh each to next of kin of the deceased persons. District officials have also been asked to move people to safer areas.

IMD in its Tuesday bulletin said that heavy to very heavy rainfall is likely over parts of Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram and Tripura over the next five days.

“Cherrapunji has received 1,105 millimetres of rain in the last four days. There’ll be more flooding in the region, as rains are not likely to stop for the next few days. But the intensity of rainfall may reduce after two-three days,” said Mahesh Palawat, vice-president, meteorology and climate, Skymet Weather.

The Delhi Police special cell on Tuesday informed a city court that the north-east Delhi riots were ‘pre-planned’ and ‘hatched’ by Umar Khalid, a former student of Jawaharlal Nehru University, and associates.

The Delhi Police made the submission while seeking the extension of remand of alleged accused persons Gulfisha Khatoon, Meeran Haider, Safoora Zargar and three others for their role in the riots.

The court extended Safoora and Meeran’s judicial custody till June 25, while it will hear the case for the custody of the rest on other dates. In its application, the police quoted an FIR number 59, registered by a crime branch officer, in which he claimed to have received ‘source information’ that the communal riots in Delhi during February 23-26 were planned by Khalid and his associates.

The case was transferred to the special cell.

However, the police have neither identified the source nor presented the evidence based on which they have accused Khalid of the conspiracy in their submissions. The Delhi Police has not arrested Khalid.

SC SEEKS RESPONSE ON SHARJEEL IMAM

The Supreme Court on Tuesday sought the response of Assam, Manipur, Uttar Pradesh and Arunachal Pradesh in a plea by JNU student Sharjeel Imam seeking clubbing of FIRS filed against him in those states for offences of sedition and hate speech.

The states have been given two weeks to file their response to the plea.

THE COURT EXTENDED SAFOORA AND MEERAN’S JUDICIAL CUSTODY TILL JUNE 25, WHILE IT WILL HEAR THE CASE FOR THE CUSTODY OF THE REST ON OTHER DATES