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 on March 19. "On the basis of the case diary and other police documents, there are sufficient grounds at this stage to grant remand of the accused persons. The directions of the Hon’ble Supreme Court regarding arrest have been complied with as far as possible. Therefore, considering all the facts and circumstances, on the basis of the prosecution documents, the judicial custody of the accused persons from 19.03.2026 to 01.04.2026 is found to be justified and acceptable," the order stated. [translated from Hindi]Azad Ali, Aamir Kaiki, Danish Saifi, Mohd. Ahmad, Nehal Afridi, Mahfooz Alam, Mohd. Anas, Mohd. Awwal, Mohd. Tahseem, Mohd. Ahmad alias Raja, Mohd. Noor Ismail, Mohd. Tausif Ahmad, Mohd. Faizan, and Mohd. Sameer were remanded to the Varanasi District Jail till April 1. .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 under threat of death or grievous hurt).This charge was added after the owners of the boat alleged that the accused men took the boat from them forcibly. They were also charged under Section 67 of the Information Technology Act which penalises publishing or transmitting material in electronic form which is lascivious, appeals to prurient interests or depraves/corrupts viewers.
