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Two arrested for cooking meat during boat ride on Ganga: Police
On Thursday, police filed a case against two named and six unnamed people under IPC sections 295 (injuring or defiling place of worship with intent to insult the religion of any class) and 153-A (promoting enmity between different religious groups) after a purported video showing a group of men smoking hookah and having non-vegetarian food on a boat near the Sangam went viral on social media.
Two of the eight people who were booked for allegedly cooking and consuming a non-vegetarian meal during a boat ride in the Ganga in Uttar Pradesh’s Prayagraj earlier this week were arrested on Saturday, police said.
On Thursday, police filed a case against two named and six unnamed people under IPC sections 295 (injuring or defiling place of worship with intent to insult the religion of any class) and 153-A (promoting enmity between different religious groups) after a purported video showing a group of men smoking hookah and having non-vegetarian food on a boat near the Sangam went viral on social media. HT could not independently verify the authenticity of the video.
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The Sangam is the confluence of three rivers — the Ganga, the Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati — in Prayagraj and is a revered place in the Hindu religion.
The two arrested men were identified as Mohd Asif, 25 and Hassan Ahmad 30. “They are now being questioned so as to identify the other six youths who were with them during the boat ride and cooking non-vegetarian food on the Ganga in the video that went viral on social media hurting religious sentiments. After questioning, further legal action will follow as per set procedure,” Sagaranj police station’s SHO Virendra Kumar said.
