Varanasi court denies bail to 14 Muslims arrested for allegedly eating chicken biryani on Ganga

A Varanasi court on Monday denied bail to 14 Muslim men who were arrested after they organised an iftar party on a boat in the river Ganga and allegedly ate chicken biryani, Bar and Bench reported.

The offences allegedly committed by the men were of “a serious nature and non-bailable”, held Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Amit Kumar Yadav.

“Keeping in view the facts and circumstances of the case, there are no sufficient grounds to grant bail to the accused,” the judge said.

The 14 men who were denied bail are Azad Ali, Aamir Kaiki, Danish Saifi, Mohd Ahmad, Nehal Afridi, Mahfooz Alam, Mohd Anas, Mohd Awwal, Mohd Tahseem, Mohd Ahmad alias Raja, Mohd Noor Ismail, Mohd Tausif Ahmad, Mohd Faizan and Mohd Sameer.

They were arrested after a video showing them holding the party on the boat was widely shared on social media on March 16.

The men face charges under the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita sections pertaining to defiling a place of worship with intent to insult the religion of a class, deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings of a class by insulting its religious beliefs and promoting enmity between groups.

They were also booked under sections pertaining to public nuisance, fouling water of a public spring or water reservoir, disobeying a public servant’s order and sections of the Water Prevention and Control of Pollution Act, Bar and Bench reported.

The police later added charges of extortion under threat of death or grievous hurt to the case. This came after the owners of the boat alleged that the men forcibly took the boat.

Charges under the Information Technology Act section 67, which punishes publishing or transmitting obscene material in electronic form, have also been invoked, reported Bar and Bench.