VARANASI: Fourteen Muslim youths were arrested on Tuesday for allegedly defiling a place of worship and hurting religious feelings after a video purportedly showing them holding an iftar party on a boat and disposing of bones and waste of chicken biryani in the river Ganga went viral.The action followed a written complaint filed by BJP Yuva Morcha’s city unit chief Rajat Jaiswal on Monday.ACP (Kotwali) Vijay Pratap Singh said based on the complaint, an FIR was lodged under sections 298 (defiling a place of worship with the intent to insult a religion), 299 (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings), 196(1)(b) (promoting enmity between different groups on the ground of religion), 270 (public nuisance), 223(b) (disobeying public servant’s order) of BNS and also section 24 of Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act 1974.The 14 accused were identified with the help of viral videos, leading to the arrest of Mohd Awwal, Amzad Ali, Mohd Samir, Mohd Ahmad alias Raza, Noor Ismail, Mohd Faizan, Mohd Ahmad, Mohd Tahseem, Mahfooj Alam, Mohd Tausif Ahmad, Amir Kaifi, Nehal Afridi, Mohd Anas, and Danish Saifi from Madanpura.Singh said a police team got a tip-off about the accused at Gaighat on Tuesday afternoon. Cops reached the spot, and after a scuffle, arrested them and took them to Kotwali police station.The complainant alleged, “The viral video showed that some Muslim youths consumed non-veg food in the name of an iftar party while sailing in front of Bindu Madhav Dharara temple, referring to the temple in the background as Alamgir Mosque. They later dumped the waste and bones into the river.”“The Ganga holds deep and unshakeable faith for followers of Sanatan Dharm. Thousands of devotees from across the country and the world visit Kashi every day to perform rituals and offer prayers using Ganga water. We filed a complaint with video clips as evidence against the act committed with a Jihadi mindset,” he said.
