Bail to group of men held over Ganga iftar row

The Allahabad High Court on Friday granted bail to a group of men accused of consuming non-vegetarian food during an iftar party on a boat in the Ganga in Varanasi and throwing the leftover waste into the river. 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 some other accused in the case.

Earlier, the High Court had granted one week's time to the state Government’s counsel to file a counter-affidavit. In the bail application, the counsel for the accused claimed that his clients were falsely implicated in the case, and that they were not named in the FIR. The FIR was lodged on March 16 based on a complaint filed by Rajat Jaiswal, the president of the Varanasi chapter of the BJP Yuva Morcha, claiming that the incident hurt the sentiments of the Hindus. According to the complaint, the accused broke their Ramzan fast on a boat in the Ganga on March 15, ate meat, and threw the leftover waste into the “holy” river.

They were booked under different provisions of law, including sections of the Bhartiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) on defiling a place of worship, outraging religious feelings, etc.

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