Why were Tablighi Jamaat members given a clean chit? | Explained

The story so far: The Delhi High Court last week acquitted all 70 Tablighi Jamaat members accused of housing foreign participants of a congregation during the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020 in violation of lockdown protocol. The court ruling came in the Mohammed Anwar versus State of NCT of Delhi case.

What happened in March 2020?

The Tablighi Jamaat members, who came in for heavy criticism in media and political circles for attending a jod (religious congregation) in Nizamuddin Markaz (Jamaat’s headquarters in New Delhi), were given a clean chit by Justice Neena Bansal Krishna who noted that the said jod was planned before COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO). Incidentally, the jod which began on March 12, 2020 concluded on March 15, a day before the Delhi government capped all religious gatherings above the size of 50 and imposed the Delhi Epidemic Diseases, COVID Regulations-2020. Earlier, on March 13, 2020, the Union Health Ministry had stated that the coronavirus was not a national health emergency as there were only 81 cases in India at that time. It all changed after the imposition of the lockdown on March 24 at midnight. While most Indian participants had dispersed by then, foreign nationals were still at the Jamaat headquarters, awaiting resumption of international flights to their respective destinations. The congregation included participants from Indonesia, Malaysia, Kuwait, Ghana and Sri Lanka.

However, soon after the imposition of the nationwide lockdown, the Delhi Police had filed FIRs against hundreds of Indian and foreign participants of the Tablighi Jamaat congregation for allegedly violating the lockdown and orders prohibiting the assembly of people. The men were booked under provisions of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), the Epidemic Diseases Act, the Disaster Management Act and the Foreigners Act. These FIRS accused Indian nationals of either hosting foreigners in mosques or accommodating them at their homes. They were challenged before the High Court which dismissed them last week, a little over five years after the incident.

What did the court state?

“There is nothing on record to show that they had congregated after the promulgation of the Notification under Section 144 Criminal Penal Code. These petitioners were already present in the Markaz. After the imposition of the lockdown, there was no way possible for them to have dispersed; rather their stepping out of the houses would have been a violation of the complete lockdown and also of the potential of spreading of communicable disease of COVID-19,” the court stated.

The court also noted that the imposition of Section 144 banning large gatherings was not announced through a gazette notification nor was it properly published. Hence, the Tablighi Jamaat preachers were possibly unaware of such a notification. “There is no averment to show that any information was actually conveyed to the petitioners,” the court stated. It also observed there was no whisper in the chargesheets that the accused were COVID-positive or had defied the government order by stepping out during the pandemic.

Incidentally, eight foreign participants had been acquitted back in August 2020 by the south-east districts court in Saket, New Delhi. Later in December, 36 more foreign participants were acquitted.

What was the media’s role?

A large section of the media had then accused the Tablighi Jamaat volunteers of being the principal reason for the spread of the disease in the country. Terms like Corona Jehad, Islamic Insurrection and Corona Terrorism were loosely bandied about and many fake videos were shared accusing the Tablighi members of spitting on food to spread the disease. The Delhi government, in its daily medical dispatches, used to have a separate column for Tablighi Jamaat COVID cases.