Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said on Saturday condemned the role of the Tamblighi Jamaat, which emerged as one of the biggest Covid-19 hotspots in the country. He also said that hiding a disease is definitely a crime.

Speaking to a television channel on Saturday, Adityanath said, “To get a disease is not a crime but to hide a disease which is infectious is definitely a crime. And this crime has been done by those associated with the Tablighi Jamaat.

He also said that if those who attended the Jamaat congregation in Delhi last month had revealed about the disease, the state government would have controlled the coronavirus outbreak to a large extent.

The chief minister said that action would be taken against them for the “crime that they have committed”.

At least 16,500 people visited Jamaat’s headquarters in Nizamuddin between March 13 and 24, according to a Delhi police report that has been compiled after the biggest exercise the force has ever undertaken.

A Delhi government official, who did not wish to be named, said around 1,000 people from outside Delhi had come for the gathering.

Over the last four weeks, police have checked call details and the locations of all the 16,500 people and found that they had come in close contact with around 15,000. While some stayed at the markaz (centre), others left and visited different places of Delhi.

Tablighi Jamaat head Maulana Saad and six other functionaries of the group have been named in a First Information Report (FIR) for organising a religious gathering at the markaz despite restrictions on such congregations to check the Covid-19 spread.

The markaz has been linked to infections in at least 17 states and Union territories, according to Union health ministry data.