Varanasi Iftar Row | 'Throwing Non-Veg Food Remains In Ganga Can Hurt Religious Sentiments Of Hindus': Allahabad HC

The Allahabad High Court last week allowed the bail applications of 8 Muslim men accused of organizing an Iftar party, consuming non-vegetarian food on a boat in the river Ganga (in Varanasi) and throwing leftover waste into the river.In separate orders issued on the same day (May 15), Justice Rajiv Lochan Shukla granted bail to 5 of the accused, while Justice Jitendra Kumar Sinha granted bail to 3. With this, 8 out of the 14 accused in the case have now been granted bail.It is pertinent to note that 8 of the 14 accused in this case have now secured bail.In its 16-page order, Justice Shukla observed that while the alleged act could hurt Hindu religious sentiments, the accused demonstrated "genuine remorse" in their sworn affidavits. The single judge, however, found the extortion allegations against the accused to be 'suspicious'."The present case involves members of the Muslim community having a Roza Iftar party, and during the said Iftar party, while partaking of food, non-vegetarian food is said to have been consumed by the members of the Muslim community, who are then alleged to have thrown the remains into the River Ganges. This fact in the dispassionate opinion of the Court could rightly be said to hurt religious sentiments of the Hindu community," the bench observed.Ganga Iftar Party Row | Granting bail to the accused, the #AllahabadHighCourt observed that while the alleged act could hurt Hindu religious sentiments, the accused demonstrated "genuine remorse" in their sworn affidavits.However, HC finds extortion allegations 'suspicious'. pic.twitter.com/iCTYIu9glU— Live Law (@LiveLawIndia) May 17, 2026 Briefly put, all 14 Muslim men were arrested on March 17 by the Varanasi Police acting on a complaint by Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha district president Rajat Jaiswal. The controversy erupted when a video surfaced on Instagram, uploaded from the handle of one of the accused (Mohd. Tahseem), showing the group consuming non-vegetarian food during a Roza Iftar party on a boat and allegedly throwing the remains into the river. The complaint alleged that the accused's act of sitting on a boat in the sacred river, eating chicken biryani during Iftar and throwing the remnants into the water was "extremely unfortunate and condemnable". The informant further claimed that this act was deliberately carried out to promote a "jihadi mentality", which deeply hurt the sentiments of Sanatan followers and caused widespread public outrage. They were then booked under Sections 196(1)(b) [Promoting enmity], 270 [Public Nuisance], 279 [Fouling water of public spring or reservoir], 298 [Injuring or defiling place of worship], 299 [Deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs], 308 [Extortion] and 223(b) BNS along with Section 24 [Prohibition on use of stream or well for disposal of polluting matter] of The Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974. The accused had moved the High Court seeking bail after a Sessions Court in Varanasi denied them the relief on April 1. Earlier, their bail pleas were also rejected by the CJM Court. Opposing the bail applications, the Additional Advocate General Anoop Trivedi argued that the applicants had not only desecrated the River Ganges but had also, in a brazen attempt to disturb communal harmony, uploaded the video on Instagram. He also contended that the video is part of a larger conspiracy to disturb public harmony and an investigation is presently ensuing to find out who had funded this Iftar party and was instrumental in promoting the uploading of the video. The State also submitted that the Ganges is not just a revered Hindu goddess but also the very lifeline of northern India. He submitted that the act of the accused had hurt the sentiments of the country at large and had also created a serious situation of public order. The counsel for the accused, on the other hand, submitted that the applicants had been falsely implicated in the case and they never intended to hurt the sentiments of the Hindu community. It was further submitted that the applicants are poor weavers who have only weaving as their source of livelihood. Furthermore, it was pointed out that the fact that the applicants had committed extortion against the said boatman had been belatedly brought to the investigation.At the outset, Justice Shukla 'wholeheartedly' agreed with the State's submissions regarding the profound significance of the river Ganges, acknowledging its importance not only to the Hindu community but to the country at large.The Court also noted that the concern expressed by the Additional Advocate General regarding the disruption of religious harmony by the acts of a few may lead to a larger incident was "not unfounded".The Bench also acknowledged that social media platforms, which disseminate information at lightning speed to...

Varanasi Iftar Row | 'Throwing Non-Veg Food Remains In Ganga Can Hurt Religious Sentiments Of Hindus': Allahabad HC

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Varanasi Iftar Row | 'Throwing Non-Veg Food Remains In Ganga Can Hurt Religious Sentiments Of Hindus': Allahabad HC

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