The Delhi High Court on Friday pulled up the police for filing first information reports against Indians who gave shelter to foreigners who...
The Delhi High Court on Friday pulled up the police for filing first information reports against Indians who gave shelter to foreigners who attended the Tablighi Jamaat conference in the city in March last year, Live Law reported.
The religious conference had taken place on March 9 and 10 in Delhi’s densely populated Nizamuddin area. On March 25, a nationwide lockdown was imposed in India to combat the coronavirus outbreak.
The Tablighi Jamaat congregation was blamed for thousands of coronavirus infections around the country in the initial weeks of the lockdown. The event had renewed stigma against Muslims, triggering a wave of business boycotts and hate speech.
The Delhi High Court was hearing a petition filed by those who hosted foreigners, seeking to quash the FIRs registered against them.
At the hearing, Justice Mukta Gupta noted that foreigners who came to India for the event stayed in homes and mosques and when the lockdown came into force, they could not move elsewhere, the Hindustan Times reported.
“Wherever anybody was residing, the person needed to continue,” the judge said. “A person could not even shift if they were with their grandparents, parents. Nobody could go out of the house. Wherever you were, you were just suddenly static. So, there was no question of changing the place at that time.”
The judge asked the police what offence...
