50 Tablighi Jamaat attendees from Maharashtra untraceable

At least 1,400 people had attended the Tablighi Jamaat's religious congregation in Delhi last month out of which 50 are missing.

PTI photo

New Delhi: At least 50 of the 1400 people who returned to Maharashtra after attending a religious congregation of Tablighi Jamaat at Delhi's Nizamuddin Markaz last month have been incommunicado, a government data said. Out of 1400, at least 755 have been tested for the coronavirus COVID-19 of which 50 have so far tested positive.

As per the data, seven others, who came in contact with these 50, have tested positive. The government has so far traced hundreds of people, who came in contact with those who tested positive for the infection. The administration suspects that hundreds of people may be infected by these people, which is under investigation whereas test reports of these people are also awaited. 

In addition, 156 nationals, who participated in the Tablighi Jamaat event in Delhi, also returned to different parts of Maharashtra, said the data. 15 cases have been registered against all these 156 foreign nationals in different parts of the state. The cases were registered in Mumbai, Thane, Navi Mumbai, Amaravati, Nanded, Nagpur, Pune, Ahmednagar, Chandrapur, Gadchiroli under section 14B of Foreigner's Act and section 188, 269, 270 of the Indian Penal Code.

In Mumbai alone, at least 14 cases of coronavirus have been reported with links to Tablighi Jamaat event. In Mumbai's Sakinaka slums, a man who had attended the Delhi's religious congregation had tested positive of coronavirus, after which the healthcare workers tracked the people who came in contact with this person.

It is to be noted that Maharashtra, along with several other states like Delhi and Tamil Nadu witnessed a surge in their coronavirus tally after Tablighi Jamaat members who attended the religious congregation at Nizamuddin Markaz developed symptoms and returned back to their states.