Coronavirus: 4 Tablighi Indonesian Couples Remanded To Custody In TN For Indulging In Religious Propagation

Four Indonesian couples have been remanded in judicial custody in Tamil Nadu’s Ramanathapuram district after they were arrested for indulging in religious propagation despite coming to India on a visitor’s visa.

The Hindu Tamizh Thisai reported that the Ramanathapuram judicial magistrate remanded then to custody after the Indonesian couples, belonging to the Tablighi Jamaat, were produced before him by police.

A local from R S Mangalam in the town, charged with aiding them, was also remanded along with them. On 5 March, police had filed a case against the nine besides two other local persons too for helping the Indonesians.

The four couples had come to Ramanathapuram on 8 March and police detained them on 24 March when they indulged in religious propagation. They were then handed over to the State Health Department officials for Coronavirus (Covid-19) screening.

All the eight tested negative for the pandemic virus but they were quarantined at the homes where they had been staying.

The eight Indonesians were ordered to be lodged in the Paramakudi sub-jail but since it did not have adequate facilities, they were put up in a private guest house.

In another incident involving the Tablighi Jamaat at Trichy, 36 Jamaat members, who had tested Covid-19 positive, demanded that they be discharged from the Government Hospital.

As the members created a ruckus throwing their masks at the nurses, the district collector had to call the Trichy Tamil Nadu Muslim Munnetra Kazhagam secretary to pacify them.

So far, 969 persons have tested positive for Coronavirus, with the pandemic being traced to the Tablighi Jamaat Aalami Markaz Nizamuddin or Banglewali Masjid congregations last month in Delhi to 859 persons.

Besides, at least a dozen people have tested positive for Covid-19 after coming in contact with foreign Tablighi preachers. Tamil Nadu’s first death occurred after a 54-year-old person in Madurai came into contact with a group of preachers from Thailand.