Varanasi, March 20: A Varanasi court has sent 14 people to 14 days of judicial custody for hosting an iftar party on a boat in the Ganga river and eating chicken biryani, a lawyer in the case said on Friday.
The 14 people belonging to the Muslim community were arrested on charges of hosting an iftar party on a boat in the holy Ganga river last Tuesday.
All the accused have been ordered to 14 days of judicial custody after Additional Civil Judge (Senior Division)/ACJM Amit Kumar Yadav rejected the bail applications of the accused on Thursday.
According to advocate Shashank Shekhar Tripathi, appearing for the complainant Rajat Jaiswal, the accused threatened the boatman and forcibly took him away and had a party on his boat in the river.
A case was registered against 14 people after a video of the incident surfaced online on Monday and a written complaint was filed by Jaiswal, the city unit chief of the BJP Yuva Morcha, on the same day.
The police had submitted a report to the court citing the statement of the boatman and eyewitnesses. As a result, an application was filed to add several additional charges, including kidnapping, against the accused. Based on Jaiswal’s complaint, a case was registered against the accused and they were arrested on charges of desecrating a place of worship and hurting religious sentiments.