Varanasi (UP), March 17 Fourteen people have been arrested on charges of desecrating a place of worship and causing offense to religious feelings after a video purportedly showing them eating chicken biryani during an Iftar party hosted on a boat in the Ganga river here was widely shared on social media, officials said on Tuesday.
The action was taken on a written complaint filed on Monday by the BJP Yuva Morcha's city unit chief, Rajat Jaiswal. The case was registered at the Kotwali police station.
Jaiswal alleged that an Iftar party was organised on a boat in the Ganga, during which chicken biryani was consumed.
"The Ganga holds deep and unwavering faith for followers of Sanatan Dharma. Thousands of devotees from across the country and the world visit Kashi every day to perform rituals and offer prayers using Ganga water.
"In such a situation, eating biryani on a boat in the middle of the river and throwing its leftovers into the water is completely inappropriate. This act appears to have been done with the intention of hurting the religious sentiments of Hindus," he said.
Additional Commissioner of Police (ACP) Vijay Pratap Singh on Tuesday said that a video went viral on Monday, purportedly showing a group of people holding an Iftar party on a boat on the Ganga and consuming biryani during the gathering.
The FIR was lodged under sections 298 (injuring or defiling a place of worship with intent to insult any class), 299 (deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings), 196(1) B (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place etc), 270 (public nuisance), 279 (fouling water of a public spring or reservoir) and the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974.