Delhi Police on Wednesday recorded the statements of Hazrat Nizamuddin police station staff and occupants of a centre who were in quarantine. The statements were taken over the phone.
“We are preparing a list of people who will be questioned. We are also maintaining social distancing during the investigation,” said a police officer.
The police said that the evacuation process ended after 36 hours, at 4 a.m. on Wednesday. All occupants were screened by the Health Department and were either shifted to a hospital or sent to quarantine. The building and the area outside were disinfected by a sanitation department team. The entry to the building is restricted till the time the Health Department surveys it.
“We have prepared a list of Indians and foreign nationals who were part of the Tablighi Jamaat and have shared it with other States to track the people and put them in quarantine. We also got details of attendees from the people in quarantine. A team of U.P., Haryana, Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh police visited the area to get more details about the people who went back after attending an event at the centre,” said an officer.
A senior officer said that the staff of the local police station claimed that they visited the centre on March 23 and were informed that around 1,000 people had left and the remaining were from other States and it was impossible for them to leave.
A video has been provided by the local police where personnel can be seen instructing people to vacate the centre as the event violated the Delhi government’s order prohibiting the gathering of 50 or more people.
“We are also probing the claims of Jamaat officials that they had sought permission from the SDM to vacate the centre and that a list of vehicles were given to seek passes,” the officer added.
“A Delhi police team visited Maulana Saad’s hometown in western U.P., but he was not there. He was last seen on March 28,” the officer said. We will interrogate him over an audio recording in which he is purportedly heard asking his followers to flout social distancing guidelines, he said.
