Allahabad High Court quashes case against 2 over Covid-time visit to Nizamuddin Markaz

FIR registered in 2020

The case arose from an FIR registered on April 2, 2020, at Shahganj Police Station in Jaunpur under various sections of the Disaster Management Act, 2005 and the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897.

Justice Dr Gautam Chowdhary observed that the applicants were falsely implicated in the case with mala fide intent.

It alleged that the police received information about two men who had travelled to the Nizamuddin Markaz in Delhi to attend a religious gathering and, on returning, they were allegedly staying at their homes with family members without informing the authorities. The police expressed apprehension that they could be Covid-positive and could transmit it to others. The two men were medically examined and sent to a quarantine centre.

The applicants argued before the high court that the FIR had been lodged on false and frivolous allegations. They further submitted that although the investigating agency recorded the statements of police personnel and the doctor who examined them, it filed the charge sheet in a cursory manner. Their coronavirus tests later returned negative, they said.

The court noted that the state did not dispute these facts. It observed that the applicants were falsely implicated in the case with ulterior motive and mala fide intent and only on the basis of presumption.

It noted that if the present proceedings are allowed to go on, it will result in the abuse of the process of the court as well as the process of law. The court hence quashed the entire criminal proceedings pending against the two applicants before the Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate, Jaunpur.

Delhi HC’s ruling

Last year, the Delhi High Court had quashed 16 FIRs and related chargesheets against 70 Indians associated with the Tablighi Jamaat, an international Islamic religious group, accused of spreading Covid by organising an international congregation in Delhi, at the Nizamuddin Markaz, between March 13 and 15.

The FIRs were registered at the Chandni Mahal, Sarai Rohilla, and Krishna Nagar police stations between March 31 and April 2, 2020. They were accused of allegedly accommodating foreign nationals in mosques and their homes during the pandemic from March 24-30, 2020.

The Delhi Police’s Crime Branch initially registered an FIR under Section 3 of the Epidemic Diseases Act 1897, various IPC sections, along with provisions of the Disaster Management Act 2005, against seven Indians. The crime branch then filed 48 chargesheets and 11 supplementary chargesheets, including under Section 14(b) of the Foreigners Act, 1946, against 955 foreign nationals, of whom 908 entered plea bargains before the magistrate court.