Thane court discharges 28 Tablighi Jamaat members
Thane: A magistrate's court has discharged 28 members of the Tablighi Jamaat, including 21 foreign nationals, in two separate cases registered here.
The cases were registered after the controversial Tablighi Jamaat event in Delhi in March. The foreign nationals were accused of violating visa rules as well as norms put in place by the authorities following the coronavirus outbreak.
Last week, the Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court had quashed similar FIRs filed against 29 other foreign nationals who had visited Maharashtra after the Delhi event.
Citing the high court's order, Magistrate R H Jha on Tuesday said 28 members of the Tablighi Jamaat were entitled to be discharged from the offences registered against them.
Defence counsel Ismail Shaikh said the accused included 13 Bangladeshis, eight Malaysians, four Indians and four trustees who had helped the foreign nationals during their stay at Mumbra here.
They had been booked by the city police under the Foreigners Act, 1946, Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897, and Disaster Management Act, 2005, apart from relevant sections of the IPC.
Shaikh in his submission had pointed out that there was no evidence in the charge sheet that when the accused arrived in India, COVID-19 cases had been reported in their country of origin.
In its order on August 21, the Aurangabad bench of the high court had said that foreign nationals who attended the Tablighi event were made "scapegoats", and allegations were leveled that they were responsible for spreading coronavirus infection in the country.
Visits by these foreigners to mosques in India were not prohibited and there was nothing on record to show that this activity is prohibited permanently by the government, the high court said.
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Rickelton's ton in vain as SRH beat MI by 6 wickets
Mumbai (PTI): Ryan Rickelton's whirlwind unbeaten ton was overshadowed by Heinrich Klaasen's unbeaten 65 as Sunrisers Hyderabad defeated Mumbai Indians by six wickets in an IPL match here on Wednesday.
Chasing an imposing 244-run target, Travis Head (76 off 30) and Abhishek Sharma (45 off 24) shared 129 runs for the opening wicket to set the platform for SRH.
Klaasen (65 not out off 30 balls) then displayed his all-round hitting abilities to guide SRH home with the help of Nitish Kumar Reddy (21) and Salil Arora (30 not out off 10) in 18.4 overs.
Earlier, Rickelton's knock powered MI to 243 for five.
MI rode on a 93-run stand between Rickelton (123 not out off 55 balls) and Will Jacks (46 off 22) in 7.1 overs for the opening stand to power the side.
MI skipper Hardik Pandya scored a valuable 31 off 15 balls before being dismissed.
Praful Hinge (2/54), Eshan Malinga (1/29), Sakib Hasan (1/39) and Nitish Kumar Reddy (1/31) were the wicket-takers for SRH.
Brief Scores:
Mumbai Indian: 243 for 5 in 20 overs (Ryan Rickelton 123 not out; Praful Hinge 2/54).
Sunrisers Hyderabad: 249 for 4 in 18.4 overs (Travis Head 76, Heinrich Klaasen 65 not out; AM Ghazanfar 2/51).
