More than five years after 70 Indian nationals linked to the Tablighi Jamaat were accused of spreading COVID-19, the Delhi High Court on Thursday quashed all charges against them. The court also set aside proceedings in 16 FIRs, including chargesheets filed in those cases.
Justice Neena Bansal Krishna, while pronouncing the verdict, said, "Chargesheets quashed."
The court passed the judgment on 16 petitions relating to 70 Indians, who were represented by advocate Ashima Mandla, seeking quashing of FIRs registered against them.
A detailed verdict is awaited.
Delhi Police previously opposed the pleas for quashing of FIRs registered for hosting foreign attendees of the congregation of March 2020 and said the accused local residents sheltered the attendees who had come to Nizamuddin Markaz in violation of the prohibitory orders on movement to contain the spread of COVID-19.
The 70 Indians were booked under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), including criminal conspiracy, for allegedly sheltering foreign nationals in mosques across Delhi between March 24 and March 30, 2020, during the pandemic.
Though 195 foreign nationals were initially named in the FIRs, most chargesheets did not list them as accused, and in several instances, magistrate courts refused to take cognisance, citing the principle of double jeopardy.
The Delhi Police’s Crime Branch had first registered an FIR under Section 3 of the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897, and IPC Sections 188, 269, 270, 271, and 120-B, along with provisions of the Disaster Management Act, 2005. This FIR named seven Indian nationals.
Subsequently, the Crime Branch filed 48 chargesheets and 11 supplementary chargesheets, including charges under Section 14(b) of the Foreigners Act, 1946, against 955 foreign nationals. Of these, 911 individuals accepted plea bargains in magistrate courts.
In addition, 28 more FIRs were filed across various police stations in Delhi, including one at Chandni Mahal, against 193 Indian and foreign nationals on similar charges. The magistrate court took cognisance of the chargesheet in the Chandni Mahal case against Indian nationals.
The controversy began in early April 2020, when the Tablighi Jamaat – an international Islamic missionary group, was accused of exacerbating the COVID-19 crisis in India. Several political leaders blamed the Jamaat for worsening the pandemic, and the government blacklisted over 950 foreign nationals for allegedly violating emergency protocols by attending a congregation at the group’s markaz (headquarters) in Delhi.
This is a developing story.
