New Delhi: The police on Tuesday filed six charge sheets in various courts indicting 69 foreign nationals. The Tablighi members belong to nine different countries who were attending the congregation. The lawyer said “the members violated visa norms and COVID-19 guidelines.”
The Tablighi Jamaat attendees belong to Indonesia, Brazil, Djibouti, Kenya, Tanzania, Australia, Nigeria, South Africa and the US, the lawyer said.
Karkardooma District court had filed three charge sheets and other three at the Tis Hazari District Court. The counsel for some members, Advocate Ashima Mandla informed that on Tuesday the remaining charge sheets were filed.
These Tablighi members belonged to separate group of 955 members and the Crime Branch of Delhi had booked these members. Different police stations had filed the charge sheets and the anti-COVID restrictions imposed fall under the Epidemic Act and Disaster Management.
From where it all started
A religious congregation held at Nizamuddin in Delhi in March this year amidst coronavirus pandemic had hit the headlines.
A trial court in Sehore, the neighbouring district of Bhopal, on July 25, sentenced eight Tablighi Jamaat members to a month-long imprisonment. Of them six were foreign nationals and two were from India who accompanied the foreigners.
With PTI inputs