Police searches for Maulana Sa’ad Kandhalvi in northeast Delhi, checks out hospitals

NEW DELHI: With an increasing number of COVID-19 cases being traced to a religious gathering in New Delhi of the Tablighi Jamaat, Delhi police and investigative agencies have launched a hunt for its leader Maulana Sa’ad Kandhalvi who was last seen on March 28.

Close to 500 COVID-19 cases are estimated to be linked to the gathering which was held last month at “Markaz Nizamuddin”. The 100-year-old multistorey building had housed around 5,000 people, both Indians and foreign nationals. The areas of Jaffarabad, Maujpur and Shahdara have come under police scrutiny now.

According to members of the Jamaat, some of the people who had participated in the Markaz had also visited some areas in northeast Delhi where mosques had been demolished. "Many of the members have phones but they don't use them. There is also this fear of inquiry so many are reluctant to come forward with information,” a member of the organisation said.

The police has also reached out to Muslim organisations registered in Jamia Nagar, Seelampur and Ballimaran which have mosques with residential facilities. "We are also working on information that they have visited some clerics who had been attacked during the riots," an official said, on condition of anonymity.

Lawyer for the Tableeghi Jamaat, Shahid Ali said the Maulana was very much in Delhi and will co-operate with the police if a notice is issued. “It is unfair to say he is absconding. He is very much here."

The Crime Branch of Delhi Police sent teams to Uttar Pradesh’s Muzaffarnagar, and also to his ancestral place in Shamli. The family reportedly said he would respond through his lawyer. Eight officials of the organisation have been interrogated by the police.

The police has till now contacted 21 hospitals to track down the missing cleric. Sa’ad, reportedly on Wednesday released an audio where he was heard asking his followers to do whatever was being advised by the doctors. Another videos allegedly of the same organisation's member also asked the Jamaat not to “oppose the police, hospital staff, or the administration in any way”.

In the audio, the Maulana said he was self-isolating in Delhi under a doctor's advice. Earlier, however, there was a video of him released, where he was seen asking his followers not to worry about COVID-19 as “it is just an attempt to divide Muslims who sit, eat, pray together, and that a mosque is the best place to die, if at all the virus were to infect them”.