PRAYAGRAJ: Sixteen foreigners were arrested on Monday night under various sections of the IPC, Epidemic Diseases Act and the Foreigners Act (for violating visa rules), taking the total number of foreign nationals arrested in the country since the outbreak of Covid-19 to at least 619. Barring a few, all those arrested are linked to

’s congregation in Delhi last month.

Uttar Pradesh leads the list with the arrest of 341foreign nationals, followed by 157 in Maharashtra, 66 in Bihar, 34 in Karnataka and 21 in

. Three other states have lodged FIRs against foreigners, but no arrests have been made. Telangana has booked 88 foreign nationals, Tamil Nadu 72 and Madhya Pradesh 65.

All the 16 foreigners arrested in

were taken to the temporary isolation ward set up in the Naini jail. Along with the foreigners, a professor of

, too, was arrested for arranging accommodation for 21 TJ delegates and not informing police and administration about them. The professor had also attended the congregation in

along with the foreigners.

Around 85% of the total 341 foreigners arrested in UP are Bangladeshis, according to police records. Rest of them are from Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. The foreigners have been mostly booked under Section 14 (b) of the Foreigners Act, 1946 which does not allow a person visiting India on a tourist visa to take part in other activities.

More on Covid-19

In Maharashtra, 15 FIRs have been lodged against 157 foreigners for violation of the Foreigners Act, inspector general of police

told TOI. All of them had attended the congregation at Nizamuddin in Delhi. They are lodged in different jails across the state.