Tablighi Jamaat congregation: Charge sheet filed against 69 foreigners from 9 countries

New Delhi: The police on Tuesday filed six charge sheets in various courts indicting 69 foreign nationals from nine countries for attending Tablighi Jamaat congregation here allegedly indulging in missionary activities in violation of visa norms and breaching anti-COVID-19 guidelines of the government, said a lawyer.

The charge-sheeted foreigners belong to Indonesia, Brazil, Djibouti, Kenya, Tanzania, Australia, Nigeria, South Africa, and the US, the lawyer said.

Three charge sheets were filed at Karkardooma District court and three at the Tis Hazari District Court here.

The six charge sheets were filed on Tuesday in the cases registered at the police stations of Seelampur, Sadar Bazar, Bara Hindu Rao, Sarai Rohila and Dayalpur, said advocate Ashima Mandla, counsel for some of the foreigners.

The 69 Tablighi Jamaat members against whom the charge sheets were filed belonged to a group of 955 others who were booked earlier by the Crime Branch of Delhi police in six cases but were allowed by the relevant court to be deported to their native countries after they admitted their guilt and pleaded for lenient punishments under the provisions of plea bargaining.

They were allowed to walk free on payment of varying fines and pleading guilty for minor offences related to the COVID-19 lockdown violations.

At least 70 of these Tablighi Jamaat members, however, could not be deported because they were found to having some pending cases registered against them at some other police stations, their representatives had claimed.

The six charge sheets, filed against 70 odd Tablighi Jamaat members on Tuesday, indicted them for violating various visa norms and anti-COVID restrictions imposed under the Epidemic Act and Disaster Management Act.