Delhi court completes plea bargaining process in Tablighi Jamaat cases, trial to begin from Aug 10

A Delhi court on Friday completed the plea bargaining process for all the foreign nationals in connection with the Markaz Tablighi Jamaat congregation at the Nizamuddin area. The trail in the remaining cases will begin from August 10.

Today, the court allowed 53 foreign nationals to walk free on the plea bargaining process after they accepted mild charges in the case.

Metropolitan Magistrate Archana Beniwal asked 40 Indonesian, 12 Kyrgyzstan women, and one South African who pleaded guilty to pay a fine of Rs 5,000 each in the matter. All these foreign nationals were represented by advocates Ashima Mandla, Fahim Khan and Ahmed Khan.

According to the lawyers, a total of 46 nationals so far have claimed trial in the matter, which will begin from August 10. All the foreign nationals in the matter physically appeared before the court during plea bargaining processing.

Around 955 foreign nationals were charge-sheeted by the Crime Branch of Delhi Police for participating in the Nizamuddin congregation in March this year, which had become an epicentre of coronavirus spread across the country.

The court had on July 6, said that there was prima facie sufficient material on record to proceed against the accused persons under Section14 (b) Foreigners Act, 1946, under provisions of the Epidemic Diseases Act, the Disaster Management Act, and the Indian Penal Code.

Thereafter, the court had summoned all the accused on different dates who were charge-sheeted in 48 charge sheets and 11 supplementary charge sheets, filed by Crime Branch of Delhi Police.

( With inputs from ANI )