Year After Controversial Meet, Islamic Sect Chief Yet To Join Probe

The meet in March 2020 was attended by thousands of Jamaat members from different states, along with hundreds of foreigners.

A year after Tabligh-e-Jamaat's Markaz in Nizamuddin West came under criticism for holding a religious congregation amid the COVID-19 outbreak, its cleric Maulana Saad Kandhalvi against whom a case was registered in connection with the incident is yet to join the probe despite several notices by Delhi Police. The meet in March 2020 was attended by thousands of Jamaat members from different states, along with hundreds of foreigners. After several of them tested positive for the infection, a nationwide search operation was carried out by respective state governments to locate and quarantine them on the direction of the Centre. Taking action against the organisers of the congregation, Delhi Police's Crime Branch on March 31, 2020 lodged a case against seven people, including Kandhalvi, on a complaint by Station House Officer Nizamuddin under sections of the Epidemic Diseases Act, Disaster Management Act (2005), Foreigners Act and other relevant sections of Indian Penal Code.