Boat iftar case: HC grants bail to 4 accused

Prayagraj: Allahabad high court on Friday granted bail to four youths who were jailed on charges of holding an iftar party on a boat and dumping food waste into the Ganga river in Varanasi.

Justice Rajiv Lochan Shukla passed the order while hearing the bail application filed by the accused, and fixed May 18 for hearing the pleas of other accused.

Earlier, the HC had granted a week to state govt counsel to file a counter affidavit.

The counsel for the accused claimed that his clients were implicated in the case and had not been named in the FIR.

Fourteen Muslim youths were arrested on Mar 17 on a written complaint filed by BJP Yuva Morcha city unit chief Rajat Jaiswal. They had been booked under BNS Sections 298 (defiling a place of worship with the intent to insult a religion), 299 (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings), 196(1)(b) (promoting enmity between different groups on the ground of religion), 270 (public nuisance), 223(b) (disobeying public servant’s order) and Section 24 of Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act 1974. Later, Section 308 of BNS was added which lays down 10 years’ imprisonment.

The complainant had alleged, “A viral video showed that some Muslim youths consumed non-veg food in the name of an iftar party while sailing in front of Bindu Madhav Dharara temple, referring to the temple in the background as Alamgir Mosque. They later dumped the waste and bones into the river.”

On April 1, a sessions court in Varanasi had denied bail to the accused, saying they appear to have intended to disturb social harmony.