Members of the Islamic missionary group Tablighi Jamaat, whose congregation in Delhi last month has set-off the biggest cluster of coronavirus cases in the country, will be charged with culpable homicide unless they come forward for medical screening, the government of Assam said on Monday.
The government has issued a final call to those who attended the congregation last month at the Markaz or headquarters of the Jamaat in Delhi's Nizamuddin to report to the nearest state-run health centre by 6 am on Tuesday or face strict criminal charges.
Many members of the group have avoided contacting authorities even as Assam launched a massive manhunt to locate those who attended the congregation and their contacts.
On Sunday, nine members of Tablighi Jamaat from Maharashtra who were in Assam's Darrang district and did not report to police were detained.
"A crackdown has been launched already. At first, we were looking for 80 people with direct Tablighi links. As we investigated, the names got added to our list and over 380 people were needed to be traced. We will crack down on about 30 people who are hiding. A special cell is working on it. We have even taken help from the Muslim community. We have decided that after our deadline, those who are hiding and intentionally not co-operating will be charged with strong sections like 308 IPC of culpable homicide," Assam police chief Bhaskar Jyoti Mahanta told NDTV.
Twenty-five of the 26 COVID-19 positive cases in the state so far are those who either attended the Tablighi Jamaat congregation at Markaz Nizamuddin or came in touch with the attendees.
So far, using cellphone tower tracing, the state government has identified over 800 people who were near the Nizamuddin Markaz during the congregation last month.
Over 300 of them are believed to members of the Tablighi Jamaat and about 30 of them are have completely gone into "hiding", police sources said.
Assam Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, who had earlier said that many of the members of the group are not cooperating with the government, sounded bit more optimistic on Monday.
"We had done several meetings with Tablighi Jamaat committee in Assam and we are hopeful that most of the untraceable Tablighis would contact us by this evening failing which we would act legally," Mr Sarma told NDTV.
World
India
State & District Details
State | Cases | Active | Recovered | Deaths |
---|
Assam Cops Find "IED-Like Material" After Terror Group Says It Planted Bombs In Assam, Epicentre Of Anti-CAA Protests, 1st Applicant Gets Citizenship Under Act Assam Court Awards Man 15-Year Jail Term For Raping Minor Girl Nurse Raped, Killed On Way Home, Body Found 9 Days Later In UP "Don't Expect Anything From Me": Kolkata Hospital's New Principal Loses Cool Rahul Gandhi's Seat At Red Fort Triggers Fresh Congress Attack On BJP Trump To Hold Press Conference, His Campaign Adds Senior Advisers Left, BJP, Creating Unrest: Mamata Banerjee On Midnight Attack At Hospital 'Don't Club Us With Others,' Says Manipur's Thadou Tribe, Waits For Peace Plan Track Latest News Live on NDTV.com and get news updates from India and around the world.