Iftar party on boat in Varanasi: Court denies bail to 14 arrested

VARANASI: A court in Varanasi on Monday rejected the bail applications of 14 people arrested over an alleged Iftar gathering on the Ganga, where they were accused of eating chicken biryani on a boat, news agency PTI reported.The group was booked on charges including defiling a place of worship, hurting religious sentiments, public nuisance and water pollution. Police later added an allegation of forcibly seizing the boat, according to Shashank Shekhar Tripathi, counsel for complainant Rajat Jaiswal, the city unit chief of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha.“Additional chief judicial magistrate Amit Kumar Yadav observed that the charges are grave and non-bailable; therefore, there are no sufficient grounds to grant bail at this juncture,” Tripathi said.The prosecution opposed the bail pleas, arguing that the alleged offences were serious and carried provisions for severe punishment. It also told the court that granting bail could potentially interfere with the judicial process, Tripathi added.The 14 individuals were arrested after a video of the incident surfaced online last Monday, following which a written complaint was filed the same day by Jaiswal. The court had earlier sent them to judicial custody on Thursday.According to Tripathi, the accused had “threatened a boatman and forcibly taken him along before holding the party on his boat in the river”.Police submitted a report to the court citing the boatman’s statement and eyewitness accounts. Based on this, a plea was filed to include additional charges, including kidnapping.“The Ganga holds deep and unshakeable faith for the followers of Sanatan Dharma. Thousands of devotees from across the country and the world visit Kashi every day to perform rituals and offer prayers using Ganga water,” Jaisawal had earlier said.“In such a situation, eating biryani on a boat in the middle of the river and throwing its leftovers into the water is completely inappropriate. This act appears to have been done with the intention of hurting the religious sentiments of Hindus,” he alleged.The case has been registered under several sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, including those related to injuring or defiling a place of worship, outraging religious feelings, promoting enmity, public nuisance and fouling water sources, along with provisions of the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974.