DELHI HC PLEA SEEKS APPROPRIATE ACTION
Even while Delhi Police on Wednesday registered an FIR against seven persons, including Tablighi Jamaat head cleric Maulana Saad for organising a congregation in Nizamuddin Markaz mosque here last month despite government warnings about spread of coronavirus, central government Standing Counsel Gaurang Kanth has written to the Chief Justice of Delhi High Court for suo moto cognizance of the event and take appropriate action against the concerned persons.
After the March 10-13 event was over, the Jamaat members spread to other places in the country, infecting scores of others with coronavirus, he stated, demanding action against the organisers and participants of this religious congregation for compromising the safety of people and contributing to the spread of the infection. Thousands of Muslim preachers not only from across India but also from Indonesia, Malaysia and other countries had taken part in the gathering of the evangelical body.
National Security Adviser (NSA) Ajit Doval visited Nizamuddin at 2 am on Saturday to convince Saad to vacate the mosque after he had rejected pleas of Delhi Police and other security agencies. Sources said Home Minister Amit Shah had asked Doval to intervene since he has good equations with the Muslim leadership.
Saad agreed to let all followers be quarantined and tested for the virus but he is mysteriously missing since after his meeting with the NSA, putting a question mark on the latter making a deal to save him.
Apart from Maulana Saad, Dr Zeeshan, Mufti Shehzad, M Saifi, Younus, Mohammad Salman and Mohammed Ashraf have also been named in the FIR under the Epidemic Disease Act. The FIR holds them responsible for the gathering which took place, and added visitors were allowed to continue living in the mosque premises despite a notice being issued to them on March 24 to vacate.
Around 128 people have been traced across the country who attended the religious gathering in Nizamuddin Markaz, and tracing for others is underway on a warfooting, Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba said. All those brought out from the mosque on Sunday and Monday are confined to hospitals and isolation centres and their testing is continuing, the health ministry sources said.