New Delhi: The Centre has brought charges of culpable homicide not amounting to murder against the chief of Tablighi Jamaat Muhammad Saad Kandhalvi. The authorities are blaming the Jamaat for organising a huge congregation in March. They have said that the meeting led to a big jump in coronavirus infections, police said Thursday.
The headquarters of the Tablighi Jamaat group in a cramped corner of Delhi were sealed. Thousands of followers, including some from Indonesia, Malaysia and Bangladesh, were taken into quarantine. They had stayed back in India after attending the congregation held mind-March.
Police explain new charge
Police had initially filed a case against Kandhalvi, for violating a ban on big gatherings but have now invoked the law against culpable homicide.
“Delhi police had filed a first information report earlier against the Tablighi chief, now section 304 has been added,” an officer said. He was referring to culpable homicide in the penal code, which carries a maximum punishment of 10 years in prison.
A spokesman for the Tablighi Jamaat group, Mujeeb-ur Rehman, declined to comment on the matter. He said he did not have any confirmed reports about the new charges.
Authorities had earlier said that of the 3,000-odd cases in early April, a third of those were people who had attended the Tablighi gathering. They also said that these people had travelled to different parts of India exposing themselves to others.
India’s tally of coronavirus infections has since jumped to 12,380, including 414 deaths, as of Thursday.
Tablighi administrators blame Centre
Tablighi administrators earlier however, had blamed the government. It said many of the followers who had visited Nizamuddin Markaz were stranded after the government declared a three-week lockdown. Hence they had to be provided with shelter and food.
Officials have rejected suggestions they were unfairly targeting the Muslim community. They said they had to rebuke the group because it had behaved irresponsibly by ignoring social distancing rules.
Agencies
