Police on Wednesday found 10 more foreign residents – all from Nepal and attendees of the Tablighi Jamaat congregation in New Delhi – from a house near a Mosque in suburban Ranchi’s Pithoria block, the Officer In-charge of the Pithoria police station confirmed. Meanwhile, cops swung into action across Jharkhand and identified several men and women who had attended the Tablighi Jamaat congregation in New Delhi’s Nizamuddin – a locality that is said to be the hotspot of COVID-19 in India.
On Wednesday, police found 14 such suspects from Bokaro and eight from Giridih. Tablighi Jamaat members from Hazaribag, Godda and Koderma were also apprehended, sources said. Highly placed sources in the police department said that raids were on to identify more people who attended the religious meet in the national capital. Around 40 people were apprehended across Jharkhand on Wednesday in connection with the Tablighi Jamaat congregation. The development comes hardly 48 hours after 17 foreign nationals were apprehended from a mosque in the State capital’s Hindpiri locality and one of them tested positive for COVID-19.
“After the first case being reported in Ranchi, all OCs were directed to identify foreign nationals living under the jurisdiction of their police station. We found 10 Nepali citizens here, and medical team is testing them,” said Pithoria OC Vinod Kumar.
“We are identifying people who may have come in contact with the Malaysian lady who tested positive. I would also like to request every person who came in contact with her to voluntarily contact the district administration and get themselves tested,” said Director General of Police MV Rao.
According to sources in the police department, around 40 residents of Ranchi had attended the Tablighi Jamaat, and the police are tracing them. The religious event held in the first week of March saw participation of several hundred people, including preachers from Indonesia, Malaysia and Saudi Arabia – countries that were already suffering from a COVID-19 outbreak back then, news reports said.
At least nine Indians who attended the religious congregation have reportedly died of the viral infection so far. Six of them were from Telangana, and one each from Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Jammu & Kashmir, a leading English daily reported.
Ranchi Deputy Commissioner Rai Mahimapat Ray said that the district administration was also identifying locals who had come in contact with the State’s first COVID-19 patient. “I request people not to pay attention to rumours. Suspects are being tested regularly, and we will keep you informed,” he said.
While the administration could not provide the exact figures of the people who came in contact with the COVID-19 positive woman from Malaysia, sources said that around 64 people from five different buildings in Hindpiri locality were tested for the virus on Wednesday.