The police on Sunday sent 10 Indonesian preachers to jail for flouting visa norms under the Foreigners Act 1946 after they completed 14 days of quarantine and were found negative for Covid-19.

Altogether, 12 preachers including the 10 Indonesian nationals and two from Maharashtra had been staying in a religious place Asandani locality under Govindpur police station area of Dhanbad since February 29 for religious prayers and meetings.

Govindpur OC Surendra Prasad Singh said: “They were sent to jail for violation of visa norms.”

Another policeman said they arrived in India on tourist visas but on arrival started preaching and doing other religious activities in violation of tourist visa norms.

Around March third week, when residents started getting agitated over the presence of the foreign nationals following the spread of Covid-19 across the country, the medical examination of all 12 was conducted at PMCH on March 23 and they were quarantined at a religious place in Bhitia at Govindpur itself.

During thermal scanning, no evidence of Covid-19 infection was found in them.

With rising cases of the pandemic in India, police decided to double-check and again brought them to the PMCH on April 1 and after collecting their samples sent them to quarantine ward of the hospital.

The administration on April 6 sent them to the IIT(ISM) quarantine centre as the Indonesian nationals reportedly were unhappy and wanted food of their choice at the hospital quarantine. The sample results of all 10 foreign nationals and two from Maharashtra again tested negative.

However, the Indonesian nationals after quarantine were on Sunday sent to Dhanbad divisional jail.