Mumbai: Police have booked 150 people who were part of the Tablighi Jamaat at Nizamuddin after they failed to report their travel history to the authorities. The civic body and police had instructed the attendees to report to their nearest government hospital for necessary testing.
However, they failed to do so, forcing police to launch a manhunt to track them down. The gathering, held from March 13-15, was attended by nearly 4,000 Jamaat members including foreign nationals and several attendees died of CoVID-19 while several others tested positive for the virus.
According to the First Information Report (FIR) registered at the Azad Maidan Police station on April 2, 10 members of Tablighi Jamaat from Mumbai, went with around 140 others to attend the event and returned to the city afterwards. But none of these 150-odd people reported to the local authorities or to the civic hospitals for medical check-ups, mandatory as per the state's CoVID-19 guidelines.
Further, the FIR mentions that all 150 people participated in the event despite knowing that a large number of foreign nationals would be present and there was considerable risk of getting infected. After the gathering, they returned to Mumbai and other parts of Maharashtra and failed to disclose their travel history to local authorities or go to their nearest hospital for check-ups, knowing fully well they could spread the virus, thereby committing an act of negligence.
Confirming the development, Vasant Wakhare, Senior Police Inspector of Azad Maidan police station said, "Upon the complaint of the BMC official, we booked around 150 Tablighi Jamaat members under the IPC sections of disobeying public servant's order (188), negligent act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life (269) and malignant act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life (270)".
Mumbai Police on Monday had requested the Jamaat attendees to report to the BMC on its helpline, failing which they would be booked under under the Indian Penal Code, the Disaster Management Act and the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897.
