Virus super spreader event
A Tablighi Jamaat religious congregation that took place in Delhi's Nizamuddin Markaz Mosque in early March 2020 was a COVID-19 super-spreader event, with more than 4,000 confirmed cases and at least 27 deaths linked to the event reported across the country. Over 9,000 missionaries may have attended the congregation, with the majority being from various states of India, and 960 attendees from 40 foreign countries. On 18 April, 4,291 confirmed cases of COVID-19 linked to this event by the Union Health Ministry represented a third of all the confirmed cases of India. Around 40,000 people, including Tablighi Jamaat attendees and their contacts, were quarantined across the country.
The Tablighi Jamaat has received widespread criticism from the Muslim community for holding the congregation despite a ban on public gatherings being issued by the Government of Delhi on 13 March.
Criminal cases were registered against the congregation attendees in the courts across India. However, in a landmark judgement in August 2020, the Bombay High Court quashed three FIRs against 35 petitioners – 29 of them foreign nationals – who attended a Tablighi Jamaat congregation in Delhi's Nizamuddin in March and travelled from there to different parts of India. The court observed: "A political government tries to find the scapegoat when there is pandemic or calamity and the circumstances show that there is probability that these foreigners were chosen to make them scapegoats." Some of the Muslims with chargesheets neither attended the Delhi congregation nor were they inclined to the Tablighi ideology, as evidenced in the case of eight individuals with chargesheets, whose case was dismissed by the Saket district court on 25 August 2020. The Chief Justice of India Sharad Bobde observed "evasiveness" in that the Government of India's affidavit filed in response to petitions challenging the discriminatory and communal coverage of the Tablighi Jamaat incident by some sections of the media. He termed the statements in the document as "unnecessary, nonsensical" averments. On 16 December 2020, The Chief Metropolitan Magistrate of a Delhi Court, Arun Kumar Garg, acquitted the 36 foreign nationals from 14 countries of all the charges levelled against them. They were facing charges under Section 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant), Section 269 (negligent act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), Section 3 (disobeying regulation) of the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897 and Section 51 (obstruction) of Disaster Management Act, 2005.
Senior BJP leaders like Shivraj Singh Chouhan attributed Tablighi Jamaat congregation for a spike in cases of COVID-19 in the country, a claim which was disputed by experts from Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Medical College in Indore saying that they have no data to link the spread of the pandemic to the congregation. On the other hand, according to the first report in India tabled before Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan by the Department of Biotechnology in July 2020 on the genome of SARS-CoV-2 has found that a particular variant of the virus brought into the country mainly by travellers from Europe had become the most prominent across the country. India's first COVID-19 patient was a Keralite student from a state-run university in Wuhan city of China, the centre of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Timeline.
Nizamuddin Markaz events.
The Nizamuddin Markaz's calendar shows three events scheduled during March: "Aalmi Mashwara" (international executive committee meeting) during 8–10 March, and provincial gatherings "Andhra Pradesh jod" during 15–17 March and "Tamil Nadu jod" during 22–24 March. There is no indication of an "ijtema" held in March. An "ijtema" would have been too large a gathering for the Markaz building to hold.
The "Aalmi" "Mashwara" probably attracted 1500 persons from different states of India as well as various countries in Asia and Europe. The Andhra Pradesh gathering would have also attracted similar numbers from Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and the neighbouring states. In addition to these, the Markaz receives a regular year-round traffic of visitors from India and abroad who come for preaching activity and are dispatched to various locations in India. It is common for them to stop at the Markaz for a few days at the beginning and end of their travel.
The activities at the Markaz apparently went unhindered until 22 March, when a Janata curfew was observed throughout India at the instance of prime minister Narendra Modi. At the end of the Janata Curfew, a lockdown came into effect in Delhi. The group said that it was able to move out around 1,500 people on the following days with some difficulty. On 24 March, when a nationwide lockdown came into effect, the Markaz received a notice from the SHO of the Hazrat Nizamuddin Police Station (which is the next door neighbour of the Markaz) asking for the closure of the building. The following day, a tehsildar with a medical team visited the Markaz and many of the visitors were examined. On 26 March, the group was called for a meeting with the District Magistrate. From 27 March onward, small groups of visitors were taken for medical check-ups. On 29 March, the Markaz responded to a notice from the Assistant Commissioner of Police of Lajpat Nagar stating that it had abided by all orders and did not allow any new visitors to enter the premises during the lockdown.
On 30 March, the authorities evacuated the building and sent about 2300 inmates to hospital wards and quarantines. Mawlāna Muhammad Saad Kandhlawi, the head of the Markaz, was not found in the building. He later responded to police enquiries stating that he was self-isolating at an unknown location.
Government measures.
Delhi is a Union territory with a legislature, which in effect means that it has a divided government. Most governmental functions are under the control of the elected government, while law and order is under the control of the lieutenant governor. The Delhi Police reports directly to the Union Home Ministry, rather than any branch of the Delhi government. The parties in power in Delhi and the Union are rivals, adding to frictions and lack of coordination.
For its part, the Union government ordered thermal screening of passengers arriving from Malaysia, Indonesia and other Asian countries from the end of February. From 4 March, thermal screening was extended to passengers from all countries. None of the foreign attendees of the Tablighi events were caught by these measures. As of 13 March the central government had maintained that there was no health emergency in the country. There were no restrictions on gatherings until this date. Home quarantine for international arrivals was not mandated until 17 March.
On 13 March, the Delhi government issued an order prohibiting sports gatherings, conferences and seminars with over 200 people. The order has been described as being vaguely worded. A second order was issued on 16 March, banning all gatherings over 50 people. The government also ordered the closure of gyms, clubs and spas. But it was not until 24 March that the Delhi Police sought the closure of the Nizamuddin Markaz.
On 16 March, the same day the Delhi order was issued, ten Indonesians who had attended the "Aalmi Mashwara" event in Nizamuddin were being isolated in Hyderabad. Eight of the ten men eventually tested positive for COVID-19. The Home Ministry stated that it informed all the state governments about this development on 21 March. On 21 March again, Jammu and Kashmir officials informed the Union Health Ministry's control room that a 65-year-old patient, who had been to the Nizamuddin Markaz, had tested positive for COVID-19. They said that he possibly contracted the virus from Indonesian or Thai Tablighi members in Delhi.
As late as 5 April, various government agencies were trying to blame each other with none of them taking responsibility for the lapses.
Spread.
A cluster spread became apparent in the following days as cases traced back to the event were reported in several states. In Telangana, five people who attended the event died on 30 March. Dozens of people tested positive in other places such as Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and Andaman and Nicobar Islands. State governments scrambled to trace the whereabouts of the attendees.
As of 3 April, more than 950 confirmed cases were detected across 14 states and union territories in the country, including 97 percent of the total cases confirmed in the country on 2 and 3 April (647 out of 664 cases). Tamil Nadu was the worst affected state, as 364 of the 411 people who tested positive had attended the event. 259 of the 386 cases in Delhi and 140 of the 161 cases in Andhra Pradesh were linked to the event. All nine deaths reported in Telangana until 2 April were of people who had returned from the congregation.
The Srinagar man who died on 26 March was identified as a super-spreader as he travelled by road, rail and air from Delhi to Srinagar via Uttar Pradesh, as officials feared that he may have spread it to several people along the way.
Tracing of attendees.
By 2 April, Maharashtra, Telangana and Karnataka traced down 1,325, 1,064 and 800 attendees of the event respectively. Tamil Nadu identified and quarantined 1,103 of the 1,500-odd participants from the state. Andhra Pradesh reportedly detected around 800 of the 1,085 people of the state who attended the congregation. Gujarat Police identified 72 attendees from the state who attended the event. Uttar Pradesh managed to track and quarantine 1,205 people who participated in the congregation by 5 April. On 4 April, it was reported that the Delhi Police had found more than 500 foreign preachers "hiding in 16–17 places" in the city.
Reopening of the mosque.
After a two-year hiatus, the mosque was reopened for worship in March 2022.
Cases linked.
According to health authorities, until 2 April, among 2000 positive cases in India nearly 400 cases can be epidemiologically traced to the Tablighi Jamaat cluster. By 3 April 647 cases are reported which are related to this cluster. By 4 April, 1,023 cases with links to this cluster were reported which is about 30% of total cases in the country. On 18 April, Union Health Ministry said 4,291 out of 14,378 confirmed cases in 23 Indian states and union territories have been linked to this event, around a third of all cases.
Following are some of the positive cases from different states as reported in media.
Aftermath.
Legal action.
The Union Home Ministry instructed state governments to track down the 824 foreign attendees of the congregation, asking them to screen, quarantine and deport such individuals. On 2 April, the Home Ministry identified 960 foreigners who took part in the event and blacklisted their visas for violation of The Foreigners Act, 1946 (by violating visa norms by entering India with a tourist visa and indulging illegally in missionary work) and the Disaster Management Act, 2005, and asked the DGPs of respective states and union territories to initiate legal action against them.
The Delhi government ordered an FIR against Muhammad Saad Kandhlawi, the head of Nizamuddin faction of the Tablighi Jamat, on 30 March. On 1 April, the Delhi Police launched an investigation into a leaked audio clip in which Kandhlawi was allegedly heard asking his followers to not be afraid of the COVID-19 pandemic and to gather in mosques to pray. He was also heard saying, "This is not the time when you leave your prayers or meeting people just because doctors are saying. When Allah has given this disease, then no doctor or medicine can save us." One media outlet claimed that Kandhlawi was charged on 16 April with manslaughter over the gathering; while another media outlet stated that no charges were ever laid against him.
According to reports, around 160 attendees who were quarantined at a railway facility in Delhi "misbehaved" and "spat on" doctors and healthcare personnel who were attending to them. They also allegedly raised objection to the food served and roamed around the facility in violation of the norms of the isolation ward. Attendees quarantined at a facility in Ghaziabad reportedly roamed around naked in the facility and made lewd comments and directed vulgar signs at the nurses. However, a medical officer with the Delhi government, who also helped evacuate the Nizamuddin Markaz, told "The Hindu" that she did not face any incidents of misbehaviour from the suspects. She stated that they mostly kept to themselves, reading "namaaz", and seemed unaware of what was happening beyond their world.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi