Indian Police File Case Against Miscreants Who Threw Urine-Filled Bottles at Quarantine Facility

Indian police have filed cases against some unknown miscreants, who threw urine-filled bottles at a quarantine facility in the national capital. 

​A civil defence official from the state-run Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB) lodged a police complaint against the incident. A national news agency, quoting a senior Delhi Police official reported that they (the police) have registered a case on charges of attempting to spread the coronavirus.

Even though the police officials have not publicly confirmed it, media reports suggest that the accused belonged to the Islamic scholars group who met in Delhi’s Nizamuddin for a religious gathering called Tablighi Jamaat earlier in March. Roughly, over 2,000 people from around the world had travelled to India for the religious meeting. 

In the recent days, several attendees of the group have tested positive for coronavirus in different parts of the world, including India. In a bid to prevent the community spread of the virus, the Islamic scholars were tracked and put under quarantine in different facilities across India.

However, many cases of their misbehavior with police officials and frontline healthcare have been registered over the last few days. 

Last week, when doctors visited a Muslim-dominated area in central India’s Indore to test people, they were violently attacked by residents who threw stones, abused the doctors, social workers, and police officers patrolling the area. Residents of the area were also accused of spitting on professionals, exposing them to serious risks of getting infected by COVID-19.

​Later the same week, a hospital in the national capital region’s Ghaziabad also filed a complaint against six quarantined Tablighi Jamaat attendees for roaming semi-naked in the facility and subjecting female nurses to vulgar, lewd gestures.

The situation has gotten so serious in India that some states like Himachal Pradesh have announced that anybody who spits on other people during this time of health emergency would be booked on charges of attempted murder.

Netizens, isolated inside their homes have condemned such acts by those suspected of having COVID-19 availing themselves of such facilities who yet disrespect frontline health workers.

​A large number of delegates at the religious congregation, both from India and abroad, have tested positive for COVID-19.

India's federal Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Wednesday, put the total number of positive cases in the country at  5,194 and the death toll at 149.