New Delhi, April 16 (IANS) The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday registered a money laundering case against the chief of Delhi-based Tablighi Jamaat Markaz, Maulana Saad, and others, days after the Delhi Police booked the Maulana under sections of the Epidemic Disease Act.
The ED registered the Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) against Saad under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) based on the FIR registered by Delhi Police on March 31.
Sources said that Maulana Saad is among a group of around nine people named in the ECIR filed by the ED, which has initiated a probe to investigate the transactions in the Tablighi trust created by Saad.
The Central probe agency will investigate the funds being received by Saad to organise Tablighi congregations and other activities. His bank account details and other transactions in the country as well as foreign funding from overseas bank accounts will also be part of the ED probe, said sources.
After evacuating about 1,600 people from the Markaz building in Nizamuddin where a Tablighi congregation was arranged by Saad amid the novel coronavirus pandemic last month, the Delhi Police had registered an FIR against him and others from the Tablighi Jamaat under different sections of the Epidemic Disease Act.
The Delhi Police case was filed under the Epidemic Act 1897 read with Sections 269, 270, 271 and 120-B of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for violation of government directions given to the management of Markaz of Basti Nizamuddin regarding restriction of social, political and religious gathering and for taking safety measures, including social distancing, for the prevention and treatment of Covid-19, the Delhi Police said.
Delhi Police on Wednesday charged Saad under stringent sections for culpable homicide not amounting to murder, which is equivalent to second degree murder.
Saad is under self-quarantine after being blamed for grossly violating the norms of the Epidemic Diseases Act. The Amir (chief) of Tablighi Jamaat, Saad, as per the investigating agencies, is in constant touch with Jamaatis through audio messages.
–IANS
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