15 more chargesheets against 294 foreign Nizamuddin attendees: Delhi Police

This comes after the foreigners violated visa conditions and indulged in missionary activities amidst the Covid-19 outbreak in the country, officials said.

A day after filing chargesheets against 82 foreigners for attending a religious congregation at Nizamuddin Markaz event, the Delhi Police is set to file fresh 15 charge sheets against 294 foreigners, said officials on Wednesday. This comes after the foreigners violated visa conditions and indulged in missionary activities amidst the Covid-19 outbreak in the country, officials said. Besides, violating the provisions of visa, these foreign nationals also led to a situation where a highly infectious disease spread and threatened the lives of the inmates and the general public at large, said the police.

The charge sheets will be filed in Saket court against the 294 foreigners belonging to 14 countries, including Malaysia, Thailand, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and several African nations.

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A large congregation organised by the Tablighi Jamaat in the Nizamuddin area of the national capital in March had emerged as a major hotspot of coronavirus in the country.

Some of the participants, who were later tested positive for coronavirus, had travelled to their home states across the length and breadth of the country.

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More than 25,500 Tablighi members and their contacts have been quarantined in the country after the Centre and the state governments conducted a "mega operation" to identify them. An FIR was registered against Tablighi Jamaat leader Maulana Saad Kandhalvi and six others on March 31 at the Crime Branch Police Station on a complaint of the Station House Officer of Nizamuddin under sections of the Epidemic Diseases Act, Disaster Management Act, 2005, Foreigners Act and other relevant sections of Indian Penal Code.