15 more chargesheets against Tablighi foreigners in Delhi
NEW DELHI: 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 IPC for violating visa conditions, lockdown rules, spreading the virus, and breaking quarantine rules, the police said.
The punishment for various offences under the penal provisions ranges from six months to eight years of imprisonment. “The visas of all the 374 foreigners have been cancelled by the Central government and they have also been blacklisted for attending religious congregations posing as tourists,” Delhi Police spokesperson Mandeep Singh Randhawa said. Crime branch officials said that more charge sheets will be filed against in the coming days. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court on Wednesday sought the response of the central and Delhi governments on a plea seeking a CBI probe into the alleged lapses by the Delhi government and the Delhi Police, which led to the congregation at the Tablighi Jamaat Markaz in Nizamuddin and migrants at the Anand Vihar ISBT in Delhi.