11 Jamaat members flee from Maha mosque after quarantine stamp

Eleven members of Tablighi Jamaat allegedly fled from a mosque in Shirur tehsil of Pune district after they were instructed to remain isolated there for possible exposure to novel coronavirus, police said on Friday.

According to police, none of them had attended the religious congregation organised by the Tablighi Jamaat in Delhi's Nizamuddin area last month, which has emerged as a key source for the spread of COVID-19 in the country. They had been in Pune district since February 22, police said.

"They are originally from Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Haryana. None of the 11 members had attended the Nizamuddin event, but they had been stamped 'home quarantine' on April 1 as a precautionary measure," a senior officer from Pune rural police said.

"They had come to Pune on February 22. Till March 6, they were in Nana Peth area of the city and later moved to a mosque in Shirur," he said. After the Delhi incident came to light, we instructed these 11 persons to remain isolated in the mosque and stamped them, the officer said.

"On the day they were stamped, all these people somehow escaped in a vehicle. Today, when our people went for checking, they could not be found," he said. A case has been registered against them for breaking the rules of home quarantine and a search has been launched, he added.

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