The Delhi High Court on Monday asked the Delhi police to handover the keys of the residential portion of the Nizamuddin Markaz, which has been locked since March 31 last year after several people who attended a religious congregation there contracted COVID-19, to its occupants.
Justice Yogesh Khanna gave the direction while hearing plea by the mother of Jamaat leader Maulana Saad. The judge directed that the keys be handed over to her within two days.
The High Court additionally clarified that the occupants cannot enter any non-residential portion of the property, till further orders. It noted that the mother who was living in the premises with eleven family members cannot be allowed to stay in guesthouses.
“What is section 60 (of Evidence Act on oral evidence), section 310 (Code of Criminal Procedure on local inspection)? What sections have you put? Preserving a site does not mean you lock. Take photos and move from the site. What was recovered? Case was only that people were residing there,” the high court said.
In her petition, Ms Khadija, has said that on March 31, 2020, the entire Nizamuddin Mosque was vacated and locked for the purported purpose of sanitization and disinfection by the authorities and to extend utmost cooperation to the authorities, the keys of the Markaz, including the residential portion, were handed over to the Delhi Police on April 1, 2020.
"However, as several months elapsed since the handing over the keys and the petitioner or her family had not been made aware as to for what reason or under what authority they were being prevented from entering or accessing their own residence, as a consequence, the entire family of the petitioner were compelled to reside at the place of their friends and relatives, barred from accessing their own residence," the plea said.
The petition submitted that neither the petitioner nor her family are aware of any orders made with regard to sealing of the property.
The plea claimed that the investigation in the concerned FIR is “running at a snail's pace” and any offence, if at all, was committed in the Markaz premises which was separate from the four-storied residential premises.
The high court will hear the case again on December 9.
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