Allahabad HC grants bail to 8 men in Varanasi Iftar party case

They had approached the High Court after a Varanasi Sessions Court denied them bail on April 1.

Prayagraj: The Allahabad High Court on Friday, May 15, approved the bail applications of eight Muslim men accused of throwing away non-vegetarian food waste during an iftar party on a boat in the Ganga River in Varanasi.

Justice Rajiv Lochan Shukla granted bail to five of the accused, while Justice Jitendra Kumar Sinha granted bail to three others in separate orders issued on the same day.

With the recent order, eight of the 14 accused have now been granted bail, including Mohammad Azad Ali, Mohammad Tahseem, Nihal Afridi, Mohammad Tauseef, Mohammad Anas, Mohammad Sameer, Mohammad Ahmed Raza, and Mohammad Faizan.

They had approached the High Court after a Varanasi Sessions Court denied them bail on April 1. Their initial bail requests were also rejected.

Viral iftar boat party

The 14 youths were apprehended on March 17 by the Varanasi police following a complaint filed by Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha district chief Rajat Jaiswal.

Jaiswal had claimed that a slew of viral videos showed a group of Muslim men opening their fasts on a boat and eating chicken biryani. He said that the youth insulted Hindu religious sentiments by organising an iftar party and throwing leftover waste in the holy Ganga river.

They were subsequently 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) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita 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.