Ganga boat iftar: Allahabad High Court grants bail to 8 accused

The Allahabad High Court on Friday granted bail to eight of the fourteen Muslim men booked for hosting an Iftar (fast-breaking evening meal eaten by Muslims during the Ramadan month) on a boat on river Ganga in March.

Separate bail petitions of the accused were listed before single benches of Justice Jitendra Kumar Sinha and Justice Rajiv Lochan Shukla.

While the Court granted relief to eight accused, the petitions of other accused are pending.

The accused 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 had been denied bail by a magistrate in February.

A sessions court upheld the decision last month. The accused then approached the High Court.

The case against them was registered after videos of them 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.