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After a year of national lockdown, Lucknow court has acquitted nine foreigners belonging to the Tablighi Jamaat from the cases lodged against them during the Covid outbreak in the country.

The nine had been booked for allegedly breaching provisions of the Foreigners Act and Epidemic Act last year.

In the order, the Chief Judicial Magistrate Sushil Kumari said that there was no prima-facie evidence against them to make them face trial.

The judge while discharging the nine, however, stipulated that their bail bonds and personal bonds would be discharged only after the appropriate action by the Central government.

She also clarified that the accused foreigners would be entitled to their passports and mobile phones only after the conclusion of proceedings pending before the Central government.

While several Tablighi members are being acquitted by courts, it is widely noted that Tablighi Jamaat were the scapegoats to divert attention from a failed lockdown, which pushed thousands of migrant workers to walk miles back home.