Tabligh members 'harass' nurses, UP to invoke NSA

Tablighi Jamaat members quarantined at a hospital in Ghaziabad allegedly misbehaved with the nurses, making lewd remarks and dropping their pants, provoking the Uttar Pradesh government's decision to invoke the stringent National Security Act against them.

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The six Jamaat members at the district hospital were shifted to an isolation ward set up at a private educational institute after the complaints against them.

They are among the thousands who attended a religious congregation at organisation's New Delhi headquarter, now being seen as a coronavirus hotspot.

In a sharp reaction, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath called those involved in the incident 'enemies of humanity'.

"They will neither accept the law nor follow arrangements. Whatever they did with women health workers is a heinous crime," he said on Friday.

"The NSA is being invoked against them. We will not let leave them," he said, accord in a government statement in Lucknow.

The NSA allows preventive detention up to 12 months without a charge if the authorities are satisfied that the person is a threat to the national security or law and order.

The Ghaziabad police said the Jamaat members were booked for indulging in ugly acts and passing lewd remarks against the women staff members at the hospital.

A case was registered against them at the GT Road Kotwali on receiving a complaint from the chief medical officer.

Senior Superintendent of Police Kalanidhi Naithani said stringent action will be taken against them.

In the complaint, a nurse has alleged that the coronavirus suspects were roaming without trousers in the hospital.

They sang vulgar songs and made ugly gestures, the nurse alleged, adding that they were not taking their medicines.

They were also not following social distancing norms, she said.

Police have registered the case under Sections 269, 270, 271, 294 and 354 of the Indian Penal Code, the SSP said.

The sections relate to sexual harassment and actions which spread disease.

Over 150 members of the Jamaat have been quarantined at different hospitals in Ghaziabad.