Tablighi Jamaat congregation: Delhi court grants bail to 82 Bangladeshis
They were held for violating visa conditions, lockdown measures
A Delhi court today granted bail to 82 Bangladeshi nationals who were charge-sheeted for allegedly violating visa conditions, illegally carrying out missionary activities and violating government Covid-19 lockdown guidelines while attending a congregation of Tablighi Jamaat in the Indian capital in March.
Delhi's Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Gurmohina Kaur granted bail to the Bangladeshis on furnishing a personal bond of Rs 10,000 each, reports our New Delhi correspondent.
The accused will file their plea bargain applications later, said their advocates Ashima Mandla and Mandakini Singh.
Under a plea bargain, the accused will plead guilty to the offence seeking lesser punishment.
All the Bangladeshi nationals were produced before the court through video conferencing today.
The court had previously granted bail to 122 Malaysians on Tuesday, 91 other foreigners from 21 countries on Wednesday and 76 foreign nationals from eight countries on Thursday.
The investigating officer in the cases had earlier told the court that the probe was completed against the 956 foreigners and each was found to have independently committed the offences.
Further investigations are pending, the official said.
The foreign nationals had attended the event in March, following which hundreds of Tablighi Jamaat attendees tested positive.
According to the charge sheets, all the foreigners have been booked for violation of visa rules, guidelines issued in the wake of the pandemic, Epidemic Diseases Act, Disaster Management Act and prohibitory orders under section 144 of CrPC which bars assembly of five or more people.
The punishment for these offences ranges from six months to eight years of imprisonment.
The Indian government has cancelled their visas and blacklisted them. The foreigners have not been arrested yet and are residing at various places approved by the Delhi High Court.
At least 9,000 people, including the arrested foreign nationals participated in the Tablighi Jamaat at Nizamuddin Markaz. Later, many of the attendees travelled to different parts of the country.
A FIR was registered against Tablighi Jamaat leader Maulana Saad Kandhalvi and six others on March 31 on a complaint of the Station House Officer of Nizamuddin under sections of the Epidemic Diseases Act, Disaster Management Act (2005), Foreigners Act and other relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code.
Kandhalvi was later booked for culpable homicide not amounting to murder after some of the attendees of the religious congregation died due to Covid-19, police said.