The Yogi Adityanath-led government in Uttar Pradesh has invoked the stringent National Security Act (NSA) against quarantined Tablighi Jamaat members for misbehaving with nurses. The law has also been slapped against those who attacked policemen enforcing the lockdown to prevent the spread of coronavirus, the government said on Friday.
Tablighi Jamaat members quarantined at the district hospital allegedly misbehaved with the nurses, making lewd remarks and dropping their pants, provoking Uttar Pradesh government's decision. They were later shifted to a temporary isolation ward at a private educational institute. A case was registered against them at the GT Road Kotwali on receiving a complaint from the chief medical officer.
SSP Kalanidhi Naithani said stringent action will be initiated against them. In the complaint, a nurse has alleged that the coronavirus suspects were roaming in the hospital without trousers. They were also not following social distancing norms, she said in the complaint.
The Jamaat members were among the thousands who attended a religious congregation at the organisation's New Delhi headquarter, now being seen as a coronavirus hotspot. Some of them are in Ghaziabad at an isolation ward of the MMG District Hospital.
Meanwhile, stray incidents of violence against policemen enforcing the lockdown were also reported from Uttar Pradesh. In one such incident in Muzaffar Nagar, a sub-inspector and a constable were seriously injured when a police team trying to enforce the ongoing lockdown was attacked by a group of villagers on April 1. "The police are doing their duty by preventing people from coming out during lockdown. There have been incidents in the state in which policemen were attacked by people. To deter such persons, it has been decided to invoke NSA against such persons," a senior Home Department official told .
In a sharp reaction, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath called those involved in the hospital incident enemies of humanity. "They will neither accept the law nor follow arrangements. Whatever they did with women health workers is a heinous crime. The NSA is being invoked against them. We will not let them go scot-free," he said in a statement in Lucknow.
