By Akanksha Kumar
New Delhi: The Allahabad high court, on May 15, granted bail to eight Muslim men from Varanasi, who were arrested earlier in March, for allegedly consuming non-veg food during Iftar while riding a boat on the river Ganges in Varanasi.
Fourteen Muslim men were arrested on March 18 during the month of Ramzan following a complaint by the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) – the youth wing of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) – district president, Rajat Jaiswal, who had alleged that the act had “hurt religious sentiments”.
In two separate judgments, first reported by the Indian Express, bail was granted to five persons by a single judge bench of Justice Rajiv Lochan Shukla. Another bench presided over by Justice Jitendra Kumar Sinha granted bail to three persons.
The bail order issued by Justice Sinha, a copy of which was seen by The Wire states: “The applicants have been languishing in jail since 17 March 2026 and they have undertaken to file affidavit before the learned Court concerned and the concerned police station that they will not indulge in/ repeat similar activities in future.”
The applicants here refer to Mohd Sameer, Mohd Ahmad Raza and Mohd Faizan who have been asked to furnish a bond of Rs 50,000 each along with two sureties (surety refers to third party or guarantor who has assured the court about regular appearance of an accused during the trial) as part of the bail bond procedure.
“As per first information report, 14 named accused persons are said to have celebrated iftar party while sitting on a boat in the river Ganga and they are also said to have thrown the waste materials in river Ganga, including bones of chicken and the applicants have undertaken that they will not do the above act in future”, the bail order further stated.
With respect to the argument made in court by the defence lawyer representing the accused Muslim men, the bail order mentions accepting the submission that “if the religious sentiments of any person or group of persons are hurt, then the applicants apologise for the same.” The fact that those arrested did not have any criminal history was also taken into account by the high court while granting bail.
Justice Sinha has been quoted as saying in the bail order, “Upon considering the totality of facts, nature and the evidence reflected from record and without expressing any opinion on merits of the case, I find it to be a fit case for bail.”
This story was originally published in thewire.in. Read the full story here.