New Delhi : The Delhi Police Crime Branch has concluded that there was “nothing objectionable” in the speeches of Tablighi Jamaat chief Maulana Saad Kandhalvi, who was booked in March 2020 amid the COVID-19 outbreak, reported the Varta Bharti.
According to a report in the Indian Express, the investigating officer informed senior officials that the speeches retrieved from Kandhalvi’s laptop and examined by the forensic science laboratory did not contain any material warranting charges.
The case was registered on March 31, 2020, at the Hazrat Nizamuddin police station, citing an audio clip circulated on WhatsApp in which Kandhalvi was allegedly heard asking followers to attend the Markaz congregation despite restrictions. He was charged under sections including culpable homicide not amounting to murder.
This development follows the Delhi High Court’s July 17 order quashing charge sheets in 16 cases against 70 Indian nationals accused of sheltering foreigners who had attended the gathering.
In the aftermath of the congregation, 952 foreign nationals from 36 countries were charge sheeted. Police filed 48 charge sheets and 11 supplementary ones. While 44 foreigners faced trial, 908 others pleaded guilty and paid fines ranging from ₹4,000 to ₹10,000.
It is noteworthy that the congregation occurred before the Union government issued guidelines restricting public gatherings. Yet, as COVID-19 cases surged in late March 2020, the event was widely blamed by authorities and sections of the media for spreading the virus. On April 5, then Health Ministry Joint Secretary Lav Agarwal claimed the Markaz meeting adversely impacted India’s case-doubling rate, triggering a wave of communal targeting of Muslims under the label “corona jihad.”
Observers highlighted the double standards, pointing out that just days before the Markaz event, over one lakh people had gathered in Ahmedabad to welcome then US President Donald Trump.
Later, a 2021 Pew Research Centre study identified India as the country with the highest level of COVID-related hostility against religious groups, both by the state and society.
