Almost a year after their arrest, 11 Bangladeshi Tablighi Jamaat members were sent back home after they were released from detention in a guest house in Uttar Pradesh's Bhadohi district yesterday (Saturday), a senior police official said.

The Bangladeshi nationals were put on a bus with Uttar Pradesh police officials who accompanied them up to North 24 Parganas district's border with Bangladesh to ensure their repatriation, Bhadohi SP Ram Badan Singh said today according to our New Delhi correspondent.

Before being sent back, the 11 Bangladeshis were tested for Covid-19 and other relevant medical check-ups, he said.

The 11 Bangladeshi Tablighis spent the first four months in Bhadohi jail after a 14-day quarantine and testing negative for Covid-19 before being shifted to the guest house of a local Tablighi leader following a directive from the Indian government, according to the SP.

He said that following a Supreme Court order, all the arrested Tablighis were freed after Bhadohi's Chief Judicial Magistrate imposed a fine on them ranging from Rs 1,000 to Rs 1,500.