Two years after Markaz sealing, little headway in case against Maulana Saad

Even as the mosque at the Nizamuddin Markaz complex (the headquarters of the Tablighi Jamaat) was reopened for Shab-e-Baraat, two years after it was sealed over alleged violations of Covid-19 protocol, the police are yet to make any headway in the case against the Jamaat’s head Maulana Saad, who has been accused of criminal conspiracy, instructing followers not to follow government guidelines during the pandemic, and deliberately ignoring pandemic norms.

Although the prime accused in the case — in which nearly 900 other foreign Tablighi Jamaat attendees were also booked — Saad was never arrested, neither was a charge sheet filed against him. Two years on, even with little progress in the case, the police are not ready to file a closure report either, officers aware of the matter said.

In its FIR, the police accused Saad of not adhering to the government and police’s directions to ensure distancing inside the Markaz by evacuating the Tablighi Jamaat attendees.

Between March 31 and April 3, 2020, the police and state government evacuated around 2,500 attendees from the complex, of whom at least 400 later tested positive for Covid-19. The infections at the Markaz led the government to declare Nizamuddin as the city’s first containment zone and Covid-19 hot spot in the national capital.

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According to details of the case, which was later transferred to the crime branch, police arrested around 900 foreigners who attended the conference, and about 850 of them entered a plea bargain, were fined by the court for the offences mentioned, and deported to their home countries.

At least 44 foreign attendees opted to face trial and were later acquitted.

Police in their submissions to the court, which was hearing the petition seeking the reopening of the Markaz, maintained that they are still investigating the case and the Markaz is a “case property”. However, in these past two years, the Delhi Police has neither filed a charge-sheet against Saad nor a closure report in the case.

The usual course of action once an FIR is registered is the arrest of the suspect, filing of the charge-sheet and the subsequent trial in the case. If police do not have sufficient evidence to substantiate the allegations and file a charge-sheet, then a closure report is filed. But in Saad’s case, even that has not been done.

The Delhi Police declined to comment on why there has been no action in the case for so long. But crime branch officers that Hindustan Times spoke to said that in the past two years, they have recorded Saad’s statement and also got answers to a questionnaire they sent him over mail.

“The decision to charge him or file a closure report will be taken by the top brass. We have not got any direction to either file a charge sheet or a closure report. From the police’s point of view, we managed to get a lot of convictions in the case. The arrested suspects were deported and blacklisted,” said a police officer, who asked not to be named.

In the FIR, the police also mentioned an audio recording that they had sourced from social media, in which they claimed that Saad was purportedly heard telling his followers inside the Markaz to defy Covid-19 curbs.

Saad’s legal team has denied the allegations and questioned the authenticity of the recording.

Saad’s counsel, Fuzail Ayyubi, said, “We have maintained right from the beginning that the case against the maulana was misplaced. Two years have passed (since the event and the filing of the case). Of the 44 attendees who faced trial in the case, eight were discharged and the rest were acquitted. Other foreigners named in the FIR, who had earlier entered a plea bargain, have also returned to their homes. It is a case in which an FIR was registered and so a closure report also should be filed. The issue was unnecessarily blown out of proportion by certain people with ulterior motives.”