Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has on Sunday said that being infected with a virus is not a crime but to hide it is definitely one while holding Tablighi Jamaat members responsible for the spread of Coronavirus.

Yogi Adityanath said action would be taken against them for the “crime”.
while speaking at a programme of a news channel on Saturday.  He said, “The role of Tablighi Jamaat was most condemnable. To get a disease is not a crime but to hide a disease which is infectious is definitely a crime. And this crime has been done by those associated with the Tablighi Jamaat.”

“In Uttar Pradesh and other places where the spread of the coronavirus has been seen, Tablighi Jamaat is behind it. Had they not hidden the disease and went about like its carriers, then perhaps we would have controlled the coronavirus outbreak to a large extent,” he had said.

Earlier, on April 4, triggering serious concerns, the police had found that more than 500 foreign Muslim preachers linked to the Tablighi Jamaat at Markaz Nizamuddin have been staying in over 15 mosques in the national capital after the event.

They were hiding in different places as they are unable to move out of the country due to the lockdown announced by the central government in view of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Defying lockdown orders and social distancing rules, the Markaz building, which is the international headquarters of ‘Tablighi Jamaat’ from around last 100 years, continued to house about 2,000 people from different parts of the country and world.

The gathering by the Tablighi Jamaat, an Islamic missionary movement that is nearly 100 years old was held at its global spiritual centre or markaz in Delhi’s Nizamuddin area in early March, and it was attended by thousands of Muslims from India and abroad.

At least 9,000 people had participated in the religious gathering at Tablighi Jamaat’s headquarters in Nizamuddin West. The congregation became a key source for the spread of COVID-19 in India as many of the participants travelled to various parts of the country for missionary works.