Allahabad: While announcing bail to eight of the 14 accused for allegedly having an iftar party on the Ganga river in Varanasi, the Allahabad High Court found the extortion allegations against the accused to be “suspicious.”
On March 17, during Ramzan, 14 Muslim men broke their fast by allegedly consuming biryani and throwing leftover pieces into the river. The videos went massively viral, leading to their arrest.
On May 15, the High Court granted bail to eight of the accused – Mohammad Azad Ali, Mohammad Tahseem, Nihal Afridi, Mohammad Tauseef, Mohammad Anas, Mohammad Sameer, Mohammad Ahmed Raza and Mohammad Faizan.
While five were granted bail by Justice Rajiv Lochan Shukla, Justice Jitendra Kumar Sinha passed the bail orders for three, with Justice Shukla observing the accused demonstrated “genuine remorse” in their affidavits.
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.This post was last modified on May 17, 2026 4:25 pm