The Tablighi Jamaat congregation held in March, attended by over 8000 members from across the world, was then called a super-spreader event of the novel coronavirus.Following an Allahabad High Court order, documents related to cases filed against members of Tablighi Jamaat in different parts of Uttar Pradesh are being transferred to the Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) courts of Lucknow, Bareilly and Meerut. The court had issued the order on September 30.
Several cases were filed against Jamaat members across the state after it was alleged that they had attended a congregation at Nizamuddin area of Delhi and then visited several places, which led to the spread of coronavirus. Several foreigners were booked for allegedly violating quarantine rules and acting negligently.
The cases pending in Kanpur, Gorakhpur, Prayagraj, Varanasi and Lucknow zones are being transferred to the court of Lucknow CJM and cases of Agra and Meerut zones will be heard in the court of Meerut CJM. Cases lodged in Bareilly zone will be heard in the Bareilly CJM’s court.
Three cases — registered each in Bijnor, Moradabad and Shahjahanpur — have been transferred to Bareilly CJM court till now, said AK Gupta government counsel, Bareilly.
So far, the documents of 22 cases have been transferred to the court of Lucknow CJM, while that of 66 cases to Meerut CJM.
Among the 66 cases pending in court, three are of Meerut district, said government counsel Sanjay Kumar Suman, who appeared in the court of Meerut CJM on behalf of the government.
He added that process of transferring documents of other cases is still on.
Following a petition filed by Maulana Ala Hadrami and others, the court in its order had stated that the CJMs would decide these matters within a stipulated time frame of eight weeks.