Ganga boat iftar: Varanasi Court remands all 14 accused to judicial custody for 14 days

Fourteen Muslim men, who were booked for hosting an Iftar on a boat on Ganga, were remanded to to judicial custody for 14 days by a Varanasi court.

Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Amit Kumar Yadav passed the order.

The controversy arose after videos of the men breaking their fast in a boat on the river went viral on social media.

A first information report (FIR) was registered based on a complaint filed by Rajat Jaiswal, Varanasi city unit president of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM), accusing the men of hurting religious sentiments. The FIR stated that the men consumed chicken biryani and discarded its remains in the river.

The men were initially booked under sections 298 (defiling a place of worship), 299 (malicious act with intent to outrage religious feelings), 196(1)(B) (promoting enmity), 270 (public nuisance), 279 (fouling water of a public spring or water reservoir), and 223(B) (disobedience of an order duly promulgated by a public servant) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), along with section 24 of the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974.

The police later added charged more serious charges including under Section 308(5) BNS (extortion).

This charge was added after the owners of the boat alleged that the accused men took the boat from them forcibly.