The Chennai police has booked 2,500 people including six office bearers of the Tamil Nadu Thowheed Jamath (TNTJ) for protesting without permission during the coronavirus pandemic.
The members of the TNTJ had, on Wednesday, staged a ‘Jail Bharo’ protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the National Population Register (NPR). The gathering saw thousands of people holding flags and marching from Kuralagam in Parry's Corner, to Raja Annamalai Mandram near Mandaveli, despite the state government’s advisory on Monday to refrain from gathering in large numbers to prevent the spread of coronavirus.
Based on a complaint from the sub-inspector of Esplanade police station in Chennai, the police booked 2,500 protesters including six office bearers of TNTJ, who allegedly organised the protest. Shahul (north Chennai TNTJ Chief), AK Abdul Raheem (TNTJ State Treasurer), E Mohammed (District General Secretary), Museen (Kancheepuram East TNTJ Chief), Al Ameen (Kancheepuram West TNTJ Chief) and Siddik (North Chennai Secretary) have been booked under sections 143 [Unlawful assembly], 290 [Punishment for public nuisance in cases not otherwise provided for] and 269 [Negligent act likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life] of the Indian Penal Code (IP) and under sections 41(6) [Assembling/carrying out procession without permission] and 71(A) [Unauthorised use of sound amplifiers in any area ] of the Tamil Nadu City Police Act.
The government of Tamil Nadu, on Monday, ordered all schools, colleges, universities, shopping malls, entertainment centres, resorts, cinema theatres, etc to shut down till March 31, as a precautionary measure to prevent the spread of coronavirus. Various Muslim outfits had announced suspension of protests that they had organised across the state against the CAA. Following this, on Tuesday, the protesters at Old Washermanpet, who were staging a protest against CAA, NPR and NRC since February 14, temporarily called off their protests amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.