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The High Court of Karnataka on Saturday has quashed the criminal cases against nine foreign nationals belonging to the Tablighi Jamaat on the condition that they will not visit India again within 10 years.
The foreign nationals are from different parts of the world including four from South Africa, one from the United States, one from Indonesia, and three others from the Gambia. They were arrested after they were found to be engaged in the religious propagation in the Tumakuru after attending the Tablighi jamaat at the Nizamuddin in Delhi, which later became the hotspot for the spread of COVID-19
The Court said, “…having examined the entire File made available by the learned SPP, does not find even an iota of material for entertaining such a baseless grievance; on the contrary, this gathers from the records a legitimate impression that the police having stood tall, exercised a lot of restraint despite running a huge risk of COVID-19 infection and tolerating the attack/assault by the miscreants; this court will be failing in its duty if it does not place on record a deep appreciation of the State Police for their yeoman service being rendered during COVID crises.”
It was observed by the court that they have entered India with a Tourist Visa which does not allow them to indulge in these types of religious preaching. In order to do so, they should have taken a missionary visa before coming to India.
The Karnataka HC observed the order passed by the Madras High Court earlier this year in the case of Md. Kameual Islam and Others Vs.state wherein the delinquent Tablighi foreigners same as that of the petitioners herein have been permitted to leave India immediately with a condition that they would not come back again for ten years and further they should even pay the fines that are to be levied by the competent authorities.
Therefore the HC passed the same order directing them to pay a fine and not visit India for the next 10 years.
The order was passed by Justice Krishna S. Dixit.
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