Now, alcohol-mutton party on Saryu sparks outrage, 4 detained, get bail

By Sunday, police identified the four men – Pawan Nishad, Jitendra Nishad, Lavkush Nishad, and Raj Kumar Nishad, all in their 20s and residents of Ayodhya’s Guptar Ghat area. All four work as boatmen.

The police did not register a First Information Report (FIR) and instead held them for breach of peace.

“The four were produced before a magistrate, who granted them bail,” Circle Officer Shriyash Tripathi said on Monday.

On why no FIR was registered, senior officials declined to comment.

Police said that one of the accused, Pawan Nishad, had posted a video on social media apologising for his actions after the footage sparked outrage.

When contacted by The Indian Express, Pawan Nishad and Lavkush Nishad declined to comment.

Two past cases in Varanasi

Earlier this year, Varanasi witnessed two similar incidents.

In June, police booked five men — Deepak Kumar, Ajay Sahni, Arun Kumar Sahni, Anurag Nishad, and Rahul Sahni, all residents of Varanasi in their 20s — after a video allegedly showed them drinking alcohol and cooking chicken aboard a boat on the Ganga. The footage triggered public outrage, prompting police to initiate an inquiry. The five were booked on charges related to breach of peace and were later granted bail by a magistrate.

A few months earlier, in March, Varanasi Police arrested 14 men – all from the Muslim community– after another viral video purportedly showed an iftar gathering on a boat on the Ganga. Police alleged that the group consumed chicken biryani during the gathering and threw leftover food into the river, an act that drew sharp criticism. An FIR was registered on a complaint of Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha district president Rajat Jaiswal. The accused were booked under provisions relating to promoting enmity between different groups and deliberately outraging religious sentiments, among other offences.

As the investigation progressed, police added further charges, including extortion, against some of the accused. After spending several months in custody, the 14 were released on bail granted by the Allahabad High Court.