The foreign nationals through their lawyer Amin Solkar had submitted that they were visiting India with their spouses, leaving their families behind and had been stuck here due to covid-19 (C19) at the mercy of other
Clarion India
NEW DELHI – The Mumbai Police told a court that charges against 20 foreign nationals connected with Tablighi Jamaat in Andheri will be dropped in the second such case in the city, reported Indian Express.
The foreigners were accused of culpable homicide not amounting to murder and attempt to murder.
In April, DN Nagar Police station had registered two FIRs against 10 Indonesian and 10 Kyrgyz (from Kyrgyzstan) nationals. The additional Principal Judge of the Dindoshi sessions court directed that their discharge applications be heard and decided upon within a month while dismissing a plea seeking that the cases be heard by another court.
Last month, both the separate cases were transferred before one court. The foreign nationals in their plea before the Additional Principal Judge submitted that the hearing on their pleas had been adjourned multiple times as the court was busy in hearing other urgent matters.
“It appears that due to lockdown and due to present case they (the 20 foreign nationals) are held up in India. So this case is also an urgent matter,” said Principal Judge S S Sawant.
The foreign nationals through their lawyer Amin Solkar had submitted that they were visiting India with their spouses, leaving their families behind and had been stuck here due to covid-19 (C19) at the mercy of others.
Pleading for the urgent hearing of their cases, the foreigners said, “They would have to face undue hardship in future”. The court said that while there was no sufficient reason to transfer the case, it held that this case was urgent, too, and should be decided within a month.
In a similar case last month, the Bandra police had dropped two Sections against 12 Indonesian nationals stating that there was no evidence to prove these two Sections against the accused. The Sections pertained to the allegations that they were responsible for C19 deaths in the city.
In a reply to discharge applications before the court, Mumbai Police said that two Sections of culpable homicide be dropped while they can be continued to be tried for other offences, including those related to alleged violations of lockdown and visa rules.
Several cases were filed against Tablighi Jamaat members, mainly foreign nationals who were visiting the country in February-March.
Last month, the Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court quashed FIRs filed against 29 foreign nationals stating that there was no evidence of violations against them and that they were made ‘scapegoats’ and jailed instead of being treated sensitively during the pandemic.
In another similar case in Nanded, a court in June ordered that the charge of visa violations be dropped against ten Indonesian nationals. A Navi Mumbai court had also earlier this month discharged eight Philippines nationals. The Bandra Tablighi group’s discharge plea is pending.