Police have arrested two Muslims working in a juice shop in the Nandgram area of Ghaziabad district in Uttar Pradesh over allegations that they mixed urine in orange juice while serving Kanwar Yatra pilgrims.
Zeeshan and Mahtab, who run a juice shop at Sihani Chungi on the Delhi-Meerut Highway, were arrested on Sunday, July 13, based on a complaint by Bajrang Dal worker, Shekhar Sharma.
According to Nandgram additional commissioner of police (ACP), Poonam Mishra, the juice samples have been sent to the Food Safety department for testing for traces of urine. The results are expected within 15 days.
Zeeshan and Mahtab have been arrested under Section 151 of CrPC, which is arresting someone without a warrant or magistrate’s order, someone who is about to commit a cognizable offence if the officer believes the offence can’t be prevented otherwise. This is a preventive measure aimed at stopping crimes before they happen.
Meanwhile, police sealed the juice shop.
Recently, the UP government issued an order mandating that all shops along the 540 km Kanwar Yatra route, from Meerut to Muzaffarnagar, must display QR code stickers.
The directive, many believe, is a way to target Muslim food business owners. But government officials say the initiative would help ensure hygiene, food safety-related information, transparency, and accountability for the estimated four crore Kanwar Yatra pilgrims.
Kanwar Yatra is an annual pilgrimage of devotees of Shiva, known as Kanwarias. They take the procession to pilgrimage places of Haridwar, Gaumukh and Gangotri in Uttarakhand and Ajgaibinath, Sultanganj in Bhagalpur, Bihar, to fetch holy waters of the Ganges River.
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