Tablighi Jamaat leader Maulana Saad Kandhalvi, who has been booked by the Delhi Police for holding a religious congregation during the lockdown, appealed to coronavirus survivors to donate blood plasma for infected people, on Tuesday, 21 April, reported news agency PTI.
In a letter issued on Tuesday, Kandhalvi said he and some other members of the organisation are under self-quarantine. The letter was shared by AAP MLA Amanatullah Khan on his Twitter handle.
The leader said that most of the members who were quarantined did not have any infection and they tested negative for COVID-19.
“Even from amongst the ones who tested positive for the disease, most of them have undergone treatment and are now cured while I and a few others are still under quarantine. It is required that such people who are now cured of this disease should donate blood plasma to others who are still fighting the disease and are under treatment”, he said.
On Monday, he had urged the followers of the organisation to pray at home in the month of Ramzan.
Meanwhile, a group of Jamaat attendees from Tamil Nadu, who have recovered from the infection, have come forward to donate their blood plasma for the plasma therapy clinical trial in the state, reported The New Indian Express. Apart from helping the critical patients, the survivors said that the main reason they wanted to do this was to counter the accusations about Tablighi members being the carriers of the coronavirus.
One of the members, Mohammad Abbas, told the daily that he was discharged from a Coimbatore hospital on Sunday and he has already spoken to the dean about donating plasma. “I have also had a word with some other members and they are all ready to donate,” he said.
While addressing an online briefing on Sunday, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal cited the Tablighi Jamaat congregation last month, a major hotspot, and the large inflow of travellers from other countries to Delhi as the reasons for the spread of the virus, and said the city was “fighting a difficult battle”.
The Delhi Police crime branch, had on 31 March, lodged an FIR against seven people, including the cleric, on a complaint by the Station House Officer of Nizamuddin police station for holding the congregation in alleged violation of the orders against large gatherings to contain the spread of coronavirus.
Later, the Indian Penal Code Section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) was added to the FIR.
(With inputs from PTI and The New Indian Express)
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