By Aditya Menon
“Mai kisi ka bhi dushman nahi”. (I am no one’s enemy)
This is what 37-year-old Mohammad Dilshad scribbled with a pencil on a piece of paper before he died by suicide in Himachal Pradesh’s Una on 5 April 2020.
The first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic was in full spate. Dilshad’s villagers had been boycotting him, blaming him for the spread of the virus. His only fault was that he had helped two people connected to the Tablighi Jamaat to reach their homes.
Just for helping someone, Dilshad was treated like an enemy by his own neighbours.
This was the time when TV anchors were shouting about “Corona Jihad” and blaming the Tablighi Jamaat for spreading COVID-19 in India.
Now, five years later, on 17 July 2025, the Delhi High Court ordered the quashing of the FIRs filed against 70 individuals linked to the Tablighi Jamaat during the pandemic.
The High Court stated that the Delhi Police had not presented any evidence to prove that the Tablighi Jamaat had violated government orders regarding COVID-19.
This vindicates the story The Quint had done on 31 March 2020.
We had shown how the Central government’s national lockdown came into effect on 22 March 2020 and the Delhi government’s orders against religious functions were issued on 16 March, both of which were after the Tablighi Jamaat Ijtima.
There was another Delhi government order a day before the Ijtima began, but that covered sports and cultural events, not religious functions.
This story was originally published in thequint.com. Read the full story here.
