SYED KHALIQUE AHMED
NEW DELHI, APRIL 17
Tightening the noose around Tablighi Jamaat chief Maulana Mohammad Saad, the Delhi police crime branch has not only added Section 304 of India Penal Code to the existing list of charges against him and his aides but the Enforcement Directorate has also booked a money laundering case against the Tablighi Jamaat Markaz to investigate its funding.
After the revelation that thousands of persons were stranded at the Markaz after an international Tablighi congregation, the police had registered a criminal case against Maulana Saad and six others involved in management of the Markaz on charges of defying government orders banning holding of large gatherings in the wake of coronavirus pandemic.
The FIR filed on March 31 had charged them under various sections of IPC including 120B pertaining to criminal conspiracy, Section 269 pertaining to negligence in spreading a disease, Section 270 (malignant act likely to spread infection), Section 271(disobedience of quarantine rule) and Section 188( defying prohibitory orders). They were also booked under various sections of the Epidemic Diseases Act.
The crime branch has now added Section 304 of IPC that pertains to “culpable homicide not amounting to murder”, a very serious charge. Police officials involved in booking of the FIR say that the new charges were added following an audio clip in which Maulana Saad is heard telling his followers that COVID-19 is a conspiracy and there is no need to wind up the congregation. “Hence, the congregation at Markaz seems to have been held deliberately by ignoring the government’s notification of which Maulana Saad appears to have been aware of”, said an official.
Police sources say that Maulana is staying at the residence of one of his acquaintances in a Muslim locality in South Delhi. “However, police has avoided to arrest him immediately because he was to be given 14 days of quarantine period as he was in touch with Tablighi members, including foreigners, many of whom have tested COVID-19 positive”, says police official. The official said that the Maulana Saad could be arrested anytime now for questioning as his quarantine period is over.
But sources close to Maulana Saad alleged that some top level community leaders had talked to senior home ministry officials to give directions to the police to be lenient to the Maulana in the case as there was no conspiracy behind the congregation at Nizamuddin. Moreover, Maulana and his aides immediately contacted police and government officials for permission to send people to their native places after the “Janata Curfew” was announced which was followed by 21 days of Lockdown declared by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Delhi Minorities Commission chief Dr. Zafarul Islam Khanhas already written a letter to Home Minister Amit Shah telling him that calling Nizamuddin congregation a ‘” deliberate conspiracy” is far from the truth though they can be held responsible for being “insensitive to the pandemic”.
Money Laundering Case Registered
Problems for Maulana Saad and his colleagues became further compounded with Enforcement Directorate registering a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) on Thursday.
The case called Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) is based on the FIR registered against them by the Delhi police crime branch and as many as nine persons have been accused along with Maulana Saad in money laundering. ECIR has been registered to investigate the transactions done by a trust headed by Maulana Saad.
According to ED sources, the agency will investigate Maulana Saad’s bank account details and transactions in and outside the country, along with fund transfer to his accounts as also those of the trust from foreign bank accounts.
All these investigations, Tablighi Jamaat sources, say appear to be intended to curtail the activities of the Jamaat that has been carrying out its non-political missionary activities all across the globe. Jamaat sources say that there are many other organisations in India, including non-Muslim organisations, receiving huge funds from their sympathisers in US and Europe but no such investigations have been carried out against them. They say that the issue basically pertained to holding congregation defying prohibitory orders but letting loose the ED to investigate Jamaat’s funding indicates something more than what simply meets the eye.
Foreign Tablighis Prohibited from Leaving India
The police sources say that an order has also been issued to ensure that no foreign Tablighi Jamaat member leaves India without information because they have violated visa rules which don’t allow foreign tourists to indulge in missionary activities.
Police sources say that all of 1,306 foreign Tablighis, who attended the Delhi congregation in March were on tourist visa and hence, indulging into illegal activity under the visa rules. Police sources say that after quarantining them for 14 days, all of them would be arrested and booked under provisions of visa rules.
Meanwhile, UP police a few days ago arrested 17 Foreign Tablighis from a mosque in Bahraich after quarantining them for 14 days. Another 74 foreign Tablighis have been arrested for flouting visa rules from different places in Bihar.
According to legal experts, foreign Tablighis involved in visa rule violations could be jailed for as many as five years.
(SYED KHALIQUE AHMED is the Chief Editor of indiatomorrow.net)
