The Delhi High Court has quashed 16 FIRs filed against 70 Indians accused of sheltering foreigners who attended a Tablighi Jamaat gathering amid the pandemic in 2020.

Justice Neena Bansal Krishna delivered the verdict, with the court stating that the chargesheets were “quashed”. A detailed judgment is awaited.

These 16 FIRs alleged that 70 Indians provided accommodation to more than 190 foreigners. Delhi Police contended that by housing foreign nationals, the accused had violated the nationwide lockdown and other restrictions in place at the time. They were booked under the Indian Penal Code, the Epidemic Diseases Act, the Disaster Management Act, and the Foreigners Act. In most cases related to the Tablighi Jamaat across the country, the accused were either acquitted or let off with a minor penalty.  

The congregation, held in Delhi’s Nizamuddin Markaz in March 2020, was an early Covid-19 hotspot that drew national and international attention at the time. A few websites and social media platforms attempted “to give communal colour to news”, as former CJI NV Ramana observed in a September 2021 hearing of a plea, which sought action against some media coverage of the Tablighi Jamaat event. 

Earlier, in August 2021, even the Bombay High Court had criticised the media’s portrayal of the Tablighi Jamaat congregation, calling it “persecution” and “propaganda”. In June 2021, the News Broadcasting Standards Authority directed certain Aaj Tak broadcasts about Tablighi Jamaat to be removed from the channel's website and YouTube, as well as other links. The NBDSA cited “errors in the figures telecast”, referring to Aaj Tak reporting on a spurt of Covid cases and linking them to the Tablighi Jamaat event, noting that “reporting must be done with accuracy, impartiality and neutrality”.

The centre had argued in the Supreme Court that the media did not ‘communalise’ the event, using Newslaundry’s reportage to shore up its arguments.  

Newslaundry had extensively analysed and reported on the media’s portrayal of the event. Like when primetime debates talked up ‘corona bombs’ and ‘Muslim enemies of Modi’, completely ignoring the role of the government apparatus. Or when mainstream media vilified Tablighi Jamaat over the Covid outbreak with communal hatred, fake news, conspiracy theories, misinformation, and misreporting. You can read all our related stories here. 

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