Delhi Police on Friday booked a local Congress leader, for not disclosing the fact that he had traveled to the Markaz Nizamuddin of Tablighi Jamaat, which has emerged as the country’s biggest Wuhan Coronavirus vector. The police have alleged that because of the Congress leader’s gross negligence, his village Deenpur in south-west Delhi has now been declared a containment zone, meaning it has been sealed off and movement of residents in and out of the place has been restricted.
Along with the former civic councillor, his wife, who is currently the area councillor and their daughter, the three have tested positive for the deadly contagion. The police have claimed that the Delhi Congress leader had deliberately hidden his travel details to the event organised by Tablighi Jamaat in Markaz Nizamuddin. When he was asked if he had visited any large religious gathering last month, he did not disclose his visit to Markaz, the police said. As per police, he was home quarantined at his residence in Deenpur village in Najafgarh. However, he was later found missing during physical verification of home quarantined persons.
An FIR had been lodged against him at Chhawla police station under Section 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant), 269 (negligent act likely to spread infection of disease) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and other relevant sections of the Epidemic Diseases Act.
A police official said that when the Congress leader was probed further to ascertain the source of his contagion and the number of contacts he might have transmitted the disease to, it was revealed that he had hidden the details about his visit to Markaz Nizamuddin. “When we were investigating initially, he was not showing any symptoms. But later when we did technical investigations, his link was clearly established, that he had visited the Tablighi Jamaat gathering,” a police official said.
The police officials have alleged that he has not only imperiled the health of his family members, two of whom have tested positive for the infection, but his conduct has also posed a threat of the spread of the disease to the local community members.
The role of the Tablighi Jamaat in the spreading of the Wuhan Coronavirus in India came to light when thousands of Jamaatis were found holed up in the Markaz Nizamuddin in violation of all lockdown guidelines and orders. Subsequently, numerous people across several states of India who had attended the Islamic event at the Markaz Nizamuddin tested positive for the virus.