No foreigner arrested, detained in Tablighi Jamaat congregation case: Delhi Police tells HC
May 26, 2020
New Delhi [India], May 26 : Delhi Police submitted before Delhi High Court on Tuesday that no foreign national, who attended the congregation at Tablighi Jamaat in Nizamuddin area, has been detained or arrested in connection with the cases filed regarding the event.
Delhi Police, in a status report filed before the court, said that none of the over 900 foreign nationals who attended the event has been detained or arrested in the cases filed over the congregation, which had reportedly become an epicentre for the spread of coronavirus in the country.
A division bench of Justice Vipin Sanghi and Justice Rajnish Bhatnagar, hearing a petition seeking the release of the foreign nationals under quarantine, also took note of the status report filed in the matter and issued a notice to Delhi Police.
The status report said that Jamaat chief Maulana Mohd Saad and others had allowed a huge gathering to assemble inside a closed premise, over a protracted period of time, without any semblance of social distancing or provision of masks and sanitisers and have thereby caused a situation where a highly infectious disease such as coronavirus infection may spread and threaten the lives of the attendees and the general public at large.
More than 900 foreign Tablighi Jamaat attendees, including the petitioners, have joined the investigation in the case and were served notices under Section 41(A) of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), Delhi Police said in the status report.
Delhi Police said that in order to substantiate the legitimacy of their visit to India, passports of 723 accused foreigners and identity cards of 23 accused Nepali nationals have been taken into possession through seizure/handing over memos.
Some of the accused foreign nationals were unable to provide/ produce their passports and efforts are being made to account for all the passports in this regard, it said.
Additionally, the standing counsel for Delhi Police stated that charge-sheets against all foreign nationals in the cases will be filed this week.
SDM HQ-V (Legal and Judicial), Office of the Divisional Commissioner, also submitted a status report in the matter and said that 955 foreign nationals belonging to 35 countries are in various quarantine homes established across the national capital.
The foreign nationals will be handed over to government agencies if MHA provides any directions or Delhi Police wishes to take custody of these persons, it said adding that the Department of Revenue of Delhi government does not have any objection to the same.
Senior advocate Rebecca M John and advocate Ashima Mandla, appearing for the petitioner, suggested that all foreign nationals who have been tested COVID-19 negative be released from institutional quarantine to alternate accommodations, factoring social distancing.
The counsel for the petitioners have undertaken to submit places of alternate accommodation today and the respondents shall inspect the same tomorrow and file a status report before the court.
