Tablighi Jamaat chief Maulana Saad likely to be summoned by ED

ED is likely to summon Tablighi Jamaat chief Maulana Saad Kandhalvi after registering a case against him and the outfit under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act which is based on the FIR filed by Delhi Police on charges of criminal conspiracy, culpable homicide not amounting to murder and for violating the lockdown rules.

New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is likely to summon Tablighi Jamaat chief Maulana Saad Kandhalvi, who organised the religious gathering at Delhi's Nizamuddin Markaz last month and resulted in one of the biggest clusters of COVID-19 case in India.

The Enforcement Directorate had on Thursday registered a case against him and the outfit under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act which is based on the FIR filed by Delhi Police on charges of criminal conspiracy, culpable homicide not amounting to murder and for violating the lockdown rules.

Sources said, "The agencies are now investigating the finances and transactions of the Tablighi Jamaat and its office bearers over the last few days and has obtained various documents from banks and financial intelligence-gathering agencies. After scrutinising these documents a case under PMLA was registered on Thursday."

The Income Tax department has also started scrutinising the accounts of Maulana Saad and other 8 members of the outfit. Sources said that the outfit is not registered, we are probing the accounts of Tablighi chief and the outfits to see if there is any tax evasion.

"The donations received by Tablighi Jamaat from foreign and domestic sources are also under the scanner of the I-T department. If the foreign funding is not found as per the FEMA guidelines and organisation fails to justify the amount received by them, then it would also amount to tax evasion," said sources.

Before questioning Maulana Saad, the agency is looking at the opinion of medical experts about his claim of self-quarantine. Maulana Saad has completed his quarantine period and he was supposed to join the investigations by Monday.

However, sources close to Maulana Saad have informed ETV Bharat that Maulana Saad got himself tested for novel coronavirus at a private lab and his report was negative after which he moved to some other house in the same locality of Zakir Nagar in New Delhi.