Varanasi, 20

March (HS): A Varanasi court has ordered 14 persons to judicial prison after

they reportedly threw an Iftar party and ate chicken biryani on a boat in the

Ganga river, according to a counsel in the case on Friday. Amit Kumar Yadav,

Additional Civil Judge (Sr.Div.)/ACJM, ordered all of the accused to 14 days in

judicial prison on Thursday after rejecting their bail pleas. According to

counsel Shashank Shekhar Tripathi, who represents complainant Rajat Jaiswal,

the accused threatened a boatman and forcibly took him along before hosting the

party on his boat on the river. The 14 people were arrested after a video of

the event was posted online on Monday, and Jaiswal, the city unit leader of the

BJP Yuva Morcha, submitted a formal complaint the same day.

The police

also filed a report with the court, citing the boatman's statement and

eyewitness reports. As a result, a plea was filed to add various more

accusations against the defendants, including kidnapping. Following Jaiswal's

complaint, the accused were charged and arrested on accusations of defiling a

place of worship and hurting religious sentiments.

The

Ganga has profound and unwavering confidence in the disciples of Sanatan

Dharma. Every day, thousands of devotees from all over the country and

throughout the world come Kashi to perform rituals and give prayers using Ganga

water, Jaisawal stated. In such a setting, eating biryani on a boat

in the middle of a river and discarding the leftovers into the water is totally

unacceptable. This crime appears to have been carried out with the goal of

offending Hindu religious sensitivities, he continued.

The case

was filed under BNS sections 298 (injuring or defiling a place of worship with

the intent to insult the religion of any class), 299 (deliberate and malicious

acts intended to outrage religious feelings), 196(1) B (promoting enmity

between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place, etc.), 270

(public nuisance), 279 (fouling water of a public spring or reservoir), and the

Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act of 1974.

Hindusthan Samachar / Abhishek Awasthi