The Enforcement Directorate (ED), on Friday, registered a money laundering case against Tablighi Jamaat leader Maulana Saad Kandhalvi, based on an FIR filed by the Delhi police, reports claimed. Under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), trusts linked to Kandhalvi and the Jamaat are also under the lens, according to the reports.
The Delhi police had filed an FIR after a religious congregation of preachers took place in early March in Banglawali Masjid in Nizamuddin area, in alleged contravention of COVID-19 restrictions, and had become a hotspot for the spread of the disease. It is believed that over 800 foreign nationals from Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Nepal, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Kyrgyzstan had attended the event. According to the government, over 2,000 foreigners from 70 countries arrived in India since January 1 to participate in Jamaat activities with over 1,000 got stuck at Nizamuddin due to the lockdown. Many of them had six-month tourist visas.
Alarm bells started ringing with the death of an Indonesian citizen who had participated in the congregation and was travelling in Telangana. He was found COVID-19 positive on March 18. The home ministry alerted all state governments about preachers of Jamaat on March 21.
The Jamaat claims that about 2,500 members were at Nizamuddin Markaz. After sudden announcement of ''Janta Curfew'' on March 22 followed by a similar action by the Delhi government and ultimately a 21-day lockdown announced by the prime minister, a large number of the Jamaat members got stuck at the Markaz, while about 1,500 had left.
What is Tablighi Jamaat?
Set up nearly 100 years ago by Deobandi Islamic scholar Maulana Muhammad Ilyas Khandhalawi as a religious reform movement, the Tablighi Jamaat translates into an outreach society or a society to spread faith. A completely non-political movement, the Jamaat aims at propagating basic tenets of Islam espoused by Prophet Mohammed—Kalimah (declaration of faith), Salat (five times prayers), Ilm-o-Zikr (knowledge), Ikraam-e-Muslim (Respect of Muslim), Ikhlas-e-Niyyat (Sincerity of intention) and Tafrigh-i-Waqt (sparing time).
Saad, the current Amir (leader) of the movement, is, Business Today reported, the grandson of Maulana Muhammad Ilyas and had become the chief of the Tablighi Jamaat on November 16, 2015 after being a member of shura (central consultative council) of Tablighi Jamaat from 1995 to 2015. He studied Maulviyat from the madrasa Kashif-ul-Uloom located in a part of Markaz.
Started in 1927 as an offshoot of the Deobandi brand of the Hanafi Sunni school, the Tablighi Jamaat expanded from local to national to an international movement, but kept its headquarters at the Nizamuddin Markaz. Today, its largest chapter is in Bangladesh, followed by Pakistan. It has more than five crore followers in India. The Jamaat denies affiliation to any particular school of Sunni Islam and says it focuses on the Quran and the Hadith.
On any given day at the Nizamuddin Markaz, there are around 3,000 people at the Markaz, which has the capacity to house 7,000 in the main, six-storey building. Behind the main building is a single-storey building for women which can house 300. Children and unmarried women are not allowed into the complex. Though more and more women are getting associated with the Jamaat, men still vastly outnumber them.
ED is soon expected to summon Kandhalvi
It is soon expected to issue summons to Kandhalvi, reported to be in self-quarantine, for questioning in the case. The agency, according to news agency PTI, is also looking at the opinion of medical experts about Kandhalvi's claim of self quarantine in the wake of COVID-19 exposure. Kandhalvi had organised the religious gathering at Nizamuddin Markaz in Delhi last month against the social distancing protocol imposed by the Centre to curb the spread of the deadly virus. The ED is also looking at the personal finances of Kandhalvi and some other office bearers and associates of the Tablighi Jamaat.
Certain donations received by the Islamic organisation from foreign and domestic sources are also under the scanner of the agency, according to the report.
In an audio message released sometime back, Kandhalvi had said he was exercising self-quarantine after several hundreds who visited the congregation at Nizamudddin Markaz tested positive for coronavirus.
The police FIR registered against the Tablighi Jamaat event says that the Delhi Police contacted the authorities of Nizamuddin Markaz on March 21 and reminded them of the government order which prohibited any political or religious gathering of more than 50 people. It says that despite repeated efforts, the event organisers failed to inform the health department or any other government agency about the huge gathering inside the Markaz and deliberately disobeyed government orders.
The sub-district magistrate of Defence Colony inspected the premises several times and found that around 1,300 people, including foreign nationals, were residing there without maintaining social distance. It was also found that there were no arrangements of hand sanitisers and face masks, the FIR said.
The Nizamudddin centre, visited by thousands, turned out to be a hotspot of coronavirus not only in the national capital, but the entire country. More than 25,500 Tablighi members and their contacts have been quarantined in the country after the Centre and the state governments conducted a "mega operation" to identify them.
At least 9,000 people participated in the religious congregation in Nizamuddin. Later, many of the attendees travelled to various parts of the country.
-Inputs from PTI, Namrata Biji Ahuja