Close on the heels of police in Karimnagar filing cases against 10 Indonesians accusing them of violating visa regulations, cases were registered against some foreigners in Hyderabad and Nalgonda district.
Many of these foreigners came to Telangana after attending the Tablighi Jamaat meeting in Delhi last month. Majority of them came to India on tourist visa but allegedly took part in religious meetings which are against the rules, the police said. The additional charge against them was that they had contacted a disease, which was already declared a pandemic, and still moved around posing threat to the lives of others.
Different provisions of Indian Penal Code, the Foreigners Act and the Epidemic Act were invoked against them. In Nalgonda district, a case was registered against 12 Vietnam nationals. Another case was booked against 17 Rohingya (Myanmar nationals). “None of the Vietnamese tested positive for coronavirus. One of them attended the Delhi meeting,” Nalgonda SP A.V. Ranganath said.
Among the Rohingya, two tested positive for coronavirus. All of them are residents of Balapur near Chandrayanagutta in Hyderabad. They came to Nalgonda and participated in religious activities, the SP said.
In Hyderabad, nearly nine cases were registered against 70 persons. This included Indonesians, Kyrgyzstanis and Malaysians and some persons from Hyderabad. The latter arranged accommodation for the foreigners and also their participation in religious programmes, the police said.
These foreigners were quarantined, the police said. “We are yet to get any instructions on further course of action. Once they are discharged, the government has to take a call whether to deport them or go ahead with legal action,” a police officer said.
