Ganga Boat Iftar Row | Allahabad High Court Grants Bail To Remaining 6 Accused

The Allahabad High Court on Monday granted bail to the remaining 6 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. A bench of Justice Rajiv Lochan Shukla granted them bail, noting that in the same FIR, 8 accused have already been granted the relief. It may be noted that in separate orders issued on May 15, Justice Shukla granted bail to 5 of the accused, while Justice Jitendra Kumar Sinha granted bail to 3. With yesterday's order, all 14 accused in the case have now been granted bail. The accused had moved the High Court after a Sessions Court in Varanasi denied them the relief on April 1. Earlier, their bail pleas were rejected by the CJM Court also. They were arrested on March 17 by the Varanasi Police acting on a complaint by Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha district president Rajat Jaiswal. 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 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. Importantly, in his 16-page order passed on May 15, Justice Shukla observed that while the accused's alleged act could hurt Hindu religious sentiments, the accused had 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 had observed.

Ganga Boat Iftar Row | Allahabad High Court Grants Bail To Remaining 6 Accused

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Ganga Boat Iftar Row | Allahabad High Court Grants Bail To Remaining 6 Accused

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