11 Tablighi Jamaat attendees acquitted for lack of evidence
JAMSHEDPUR: All the 11 foreign nationals, who had attended the Tablighi Jamaat congregation in New Delhi and were later arrested and jailed on charges of violation of Covid-19 lockdown rules in March last year, were acquitted by a local court in absence of adequate evidence in Ghatsila on Friday.
“The court of additional chief judicial magistrate (ACJM) Sushila Soren acquitted all the 11 foreign members of Tablighi Jamaat in absence of adequate evidence on Friday. They had been arrested on charges of violation of Section 44 (b) of Lockdown rules. However, the prosecution could not produce any evidence in support of the allegations. The court has not levied any fine either. The case was related to their arresting from a mosque in Rargaon under Tamar police station. Our next move will be to provide compensation to them,” Virendra Singh, a senior lawyer representing the eleven foreigners, said.
Singh, along with advocate Mithilesh Singh, represented the Tablghi Jamaat members, while assistant public prosecutor DJ Bose represented the prosecution in the case.
These 11 foreign nationals were arrested by Tamar police from a mosque in Rargaon on March 24 last year.
Later in April, an FIR was lodged against them in Jadugora police station on the basis of a statement by its then officer in-charge Rajib Ranjan.
They were kept in institutional quarantine at Mosaboni police training centre before being sent to jail.
Earlier, the Jharkhand high court had released them on bail in August last year and had also ordered releasing of their passport and visa documents.
Singh said the prosecution showed the place of occurrence as Mosaboni in the FIR, but had produced documents of the foreigners’ arresting from a mosque in Rargaon around 2am on March 24 last year, which the court refused to accept.