Unzila Sheikh and Maryam Hassan, TwoCircles.net
New Delhi: When Mohammad Aftab looks back at the past five years, the memories grief, fear and humiliation come not in sequence, but in waves.
“The case destroyed my life. My relatives distanced themselves, neighbours whispered behind my back and people in the lanes pointed at me, saying, ‘Even Allah cannot save him now,'” he said, sitting in the narrow lanes of Delhi’s Turkman Gate, with his voice becoming flat after retelling a story he has repeated too many times.
Aftab was among 70 people who were named in 16 FIRs filed in 2020 for allegedly sheltering foreign nationals affiliated with the Tablighi Jamaat during the nationwide COVID-19 lockdown. Five years later, on July 17, 2025, the Delhi High Court quashed all charges. But for many like him, the verdict offered little solace after the devastation they had endured.
A Mosque at the Center of the Storm
Choti Masjid in Turkman Gate had long been a centre for religious visitors. The president of the mosque, Shafiquddin Malik, remembers the days before the lockdown as routine.
“In this area, we have Choti Masjid, a local mosque. People from across India visit for Tablighi Jamaat activities. The mosque hosts visitors from across the nation and multiple countries such as Malaysia and Indonesia. They stay here briefly for Quranic study and Islamic outreach,” he explained.
As usual, the mosque at that time, according to him, had 10 or 11 people from Malaysia and a few from Indonesia, stayed there as usual. They had arrived before COVID-19 restrictions were enforced.
When Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared a nationwide lockdown in March 2020, the guests stayed back, as instructed. Travel was shut down. Movement stopped. The mosque simply provided shelter to those stranded.
“The prime minister announced that COVID-19 was spreading rapidly and urged people to stay where they were, the visitors remained at the mosque, as leaving was not an option,” he said.
But something changed in the days that followed.
The Blame Begins
Reports began surfacing about a large Tablighi Jamaat gathering at Nizamuddin Markaz. The event was soon labelled a COVID “super spreader.” The narrative quickly turned accusatory. Within days, the focus spread to smaller mosques across India, including Choti Masjid.
“Two or three days later, two police officials from the local station accused us of hiding members of the Jamaat in the mosque. During interrogation, they lined up the visitors in a queue and misbehaved with them and us,” he recalled.
The police did not stop at questioning. That same evening, Malik and others were picked up from their homes.
“At around 8-8:30 pm, a police officer came to my house and asked me to accompany him to the local police station for interrogation. Imam Sahib (prayer leader), Muezzin Sahib (the person who calls to prayer) and about 10 others from the mosque were taken away in a similar manner that day at around 2 pm,” he said.
The atmosphere was allegedly hostile at the Turkman Gate police station.
“They (cops at the police station) hurled verbal abuses at us. An officer even asked his subordinates to handcuff us. But since they did not have enough handcuffs, they talked about tying us up using ropes. They treated us like hardened criminals, forcing us to squat on the ground,” he narrated the horror.
Eleven Malaysian nationals, mosque members, the imam and the muezzin were all arrested under multiple charges.
Malik recalled hearing a remark that echoed what had already started forming in public sentiment: “Mullahs are spreading Corona (Mullahs, read Muslims, are spreading Corona virus).”
Personal Loss, Public Humiliation
For Aftab, the shock of arrest came while mourning his child.
“It started in March 2020, right after my 9-year-old son passed away. I was grieving at home, barely stepping out, when the Delhi Police came knocking. They took me to the station for questioning about Choti Masjid, where I am a committee member,” he said.
He tried to explain that he had just lost his son and that he was trying to come out of the shock, but none of it mattered.
“They accused us of hosting Tablighi Jamaat visitors and violating COVID-19 guidelines, even though we were just following the prime minister’s lockdown orders to stay put,” he said.
His social world collapsed. “My relatives distanced themselves, neighbours whispered behind my back… They saw me as a criminal,” he continued.
His business could not withstand the blow. “I used to travel to Dubai to buy clothes for my shop at Meena Bazar, but the cases stopped me from flying. I had to rely solely on my AC sales and repair shop, which barely kept me afloat,” he said.
Fear became a constant. “Every court date or every unknown call kept me on edge. I was terrified that, as a Muslim with a long beard, I would be targetted next for something worse, like terrorism charges,” he stated.
Even now, the High Court’s ruling feels unreal to him. “I keep calling my lawyer and friends to confirm it is real. It feels like a dream I cannot trust,” he said.
No Evidence
Advocate Ashima Mandla represented several accused. She saw the scale of the crackdown first-hand.
“Five years ago, the police came up with an FIR against Maulana Saad (the national president of the Tablighi Jamaat) and others. They claimed the congregation at Markaz Nizamuddin had led to the spread of the virus,” she explained.
Soon, the Ministry of Home Affairs issued directives. Raids followed. Detentions multiplied.
“If you find people who are inside Markaz or any other masjids (mosques), you go crack down, take these people to quarantine centres and see if any legal action is made out,” she said.
About 2,000 Indian and foreign nationals were picked up overnight. Quarantine lasted two months.
Salman Pathak, another accused, remembers what it felt like. “The police claimed we deliberately hid these members. They also confiscated our cell phones; mine was returned after five months. We felt like our lives were ruined,” he said.
The foreign nationals suffered deeply. “During Ramadan, they were given nothing but a few eggs to eat, and they would cry,” Pathak said, adding that one man lost his wife back in Indonesia, unable to be with her during her final moments.
When the quarantines ended, flights were still grounded. The mosque community bore the cost. “We took care of around 144 outsider Jamaat members, covering all their expenses. This severely impacted our livelihood and business financially,” he said.
A Trial in Court of Public Opinion
Television screens amplified the pain. News outlets launched relentless coverage. India Today aired debates like “Tablighi Jamaat: How Maulana Saad Set Off COVID-19 Clusters”, Times Now called it a “Tablighi Ticking Time Bombay” and Republic TV broadcast audio clips that were later turned out to be doctored.
“The tapes that were played by the media were not brought up in court. None of the chargesheets have any credible evidence. Still the media ran with it,” Advocate Mandla pointed out.
Even after the High Court quashed the cases, the same channels went silent.
“The mainstream media, who led to spreading this propaganda, is cleverly evading even reporting this judgment. They just found an easy scapegoat,” she said.
Verdict and the Remains
In 2021, the accused had petitioned the Delhi High Court, arguing that the prohibitory orders applied to gatherings, not to housing people during a lockdown. The court listened.
On July 17, 2025, Justice Neena Bansal Krishna declared – chargesheets are quashed.
“One among the charges levelled against them was that they violated a government prohibitory order under section 144 of CRPC. But there was no evidence of any religious congregation taking place inside the masjid. It was people who were merely being housed,” she said.
No medical evidence was ever submitted to show COVID-19 transmission because of the Tablighi Jamaat. “None of the chargesheets till date have a single medical report on record to show that even one of them had COVID,” Mandla said, adding that “you cannot spread a disease if you do not have one”.
Wounds Beyond Repair
For Malik, the court’s decision does not undo the cost.
“Even if someone gets a clean chit after five or ten years, how do they recover from the damage?” he asked.
His health declined during this period. “It worsened my blood pressure and diabetes. I would go to the police station, face mistreatment and sit there all day, unable to speak freely,” he alleged.
The stress affected his family too. “My wife developed high blood pressure. My mother passed away, wishing to see me cleared of all charges,” he said
Pathak remembered standing in police stations for hours. “They pressured us to plead guilty, but I refused. Even though we have now received a clean chit, the damage has already been done,” he said.
Looking Ahead
Advocate Mandla believes accountability must follow.
“There needs to be some consequences for filing cases against citizens without any material on record. The government just wanted a scapegoat… and of course, they marginalise the minority which is always used as a scapegoat,” she said.
For Malik, the stigma still lingers. “I felt targeted because of my faith. Even today, people look at me differently, as if I did something wrong just because I am a Muslim,” he concluded.