Over 60 foreign nationals, who are members of Tablighi Jamaat, have been arrested by police for participating in various religious programmes of the organisation in violation of Foreigners Act and under the Indian Penal Code, a senior officer said on Saturday.
Earlier, seven cases were registered against them under visa norms at various police stations in Bhopal.
Tablighi Jamaat had hit headlines earlier over a religious congregation held at Nizamuddin in Delhi in March this year amidst coronavirus pandemic. Many COVID-19 cases were reported when some Tablighis travelled back to their respective home states.
However, it is not yet clear whether these foreigners had attended the Delhi event, an official said.
"Cases were registered against the foreigner Jamaatis for the violation of visa conditions under the Foreigners Act.
They had arrived in India on tourist visas under which they can't participate in religious activities," Bhopal Police Range Inspector General (IG) Upendra Jain told PTI.
Mr Jain said the police arrested the Jamaatis on Friday after their bail application was rejected by a local court.
They hailed from countries like Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, Tanzania, South Africa, Myanmar and others.
Another official said a total of 64 foreigners were arrested under sections 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant), 269 (negligent act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life) and 270 (Malignant act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and provisions of the Disaster Management Act and Foreigners' Act.
He said some of the arrested persons had earlier tested positive for coronavirus and all of them were placed under quarantine.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
UK Covid-19 Inquiry To Issue First Report On Preparedness Joe Biden Tests Positive For Covid As Age Worries Mount Long Covid Symptoms To Last Longer In Pregnant Women: Study "Jindal Group Executive Showed Porn, Groped Me On Flight": Woman To NDTV Over 300 Indian Students Return Home As 105 Bangladeshis Killed In Protests Massive Worldwide Microsoft Outage: Flights, Markets, Stock Exchange Down Wife, Parents To Get Equal Compensation If Madhya Pradesh Cop Dies On Duty Bangladesh Imposes Curfew, Deploys Military As 105 Die In Protests Tesla Halted Some Production Lines Due To Global IT Outage: Report Track Latest News Live on NDTV.com and get news updates from India and around the world.