15 more charge sheets against 292 Tablighi foreigners
A day after 20 charge sheets were filed against 82 foreigners who are members of the Tablighi Jamaat, Delhi Police on Wednesday submitted 15 charge sheets indicting 292 more for violation of visa conditions, lockdown rules, spreading Covid-19 and breaking quarantine rules under different sections of the Foreigners Act, the Epidemic Disease Act and IPC.
Police said the accused attended a religious congregation at the Markaz, the headquarters of the Tableeghi Jamaat in Nizamuddin, in March. Now, the total number of foreigners chargesheeted in the case has risen to 374 in two days. The police have said that more than 900 people from 34 countries had arrived in India on a tourist visa or e-visa but “illegally indulged in missionary activities and attended the religious congregation, violating their visa rules”.
The 15 charge sheets, comprising 13,070 pages, were filed before the duty magistrate at the Saket district court who posted the matter for June 17. Of the 292 foreigners chargesheeted on Wednesday, 80 each are from Bangladesh and Malaysia while 44 and 39 are from Myanmar and Thailand respectively. The others are from countries such as Nepal, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Mali, Nigeria, Tanzania, and South Africa, etc.
Senior crime branch officers said that the 292 foreigners belong to 14 different countries. They have all been booked under Section 14 (b) of the Foreigners Act, Section 3 of the Epidemic Disease Act, Section 51 of the Disaster Management Act and four sections (188, 269, 270 and 271) of the Indian Penal Code for violating visa conditions, lockdown rules, spreading the virus.