43 Booked for ‘Serving’ Non-Veg Biryani to Hindus in UP

The FIR was registered on Wednesday after intervention of BJP MLA Brijbhushan Rajpoot.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

A case has been registered against 43 persons for serving non-vegetarian biryani to Hindus at a community feast in Uttar Pradesh's Mahoba district on Thursday, 5 September, reported PTI.

The police said that the feast was organised during the ‘urs’ of Sheikh Peer Baba in Salat village in Charkhari area on 31 August.

The FIR was registered on Wednesday after BJP MLA Brijbhushan Rajpoot intervened. A police officer, talking to The Indian Express, said that the complainant was willing to withdraw the case but Rajpoot urged him otherwise.

"The biryani was deliberately served to hurt the sentiments of Hindus. Strict action is needed in the matter," Rajpoot told reporters.

Superintendent of Police Swami Nath said it was not true that people were deliberately served non-veg biryani.

An FIR has been registered under sections 153A (promoting enmity between different groups), 295A (acts intended to outrage religious feelings), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code.

According to the FIR, the buffalo meat was served to Hindus mixed with rice without alerting them to intentionally hurt their religious sentiments.

"A probe is on in the matter. No arrests have so far been made," said Nath.

‘They Did This Knowingly’: BJP MLA

According to The Indian Express the MLA has said that he “asked” the villagers to get an FIR registered when he heard about the incident.

The publication quoted him as saying, “When the matter escalated, a panchayat was called in which the main accused accepted that buffalo meat was served by mistake. He apologised and offered to pay Rs 50,000 to arrange a shuddhikaran.”

“While some people agreed to it, others came to me. I went to the village and asked for an FIR to be registered against those responsible as they did this to knowingly hurt our religious feelings,” he added.

One of the complainants, Rajkumar Raikwar, told the Express that only one person named in the FIR was responsible for the incident and the others were innocent, but Rajpoot still had their names included.

The main accused, Pappu Ansari, was throwing a feast because his nephew had been cured of an illness, Anoop Kumar Pandey, SHO of Charkhari Police Station told the publication.

He added that he had brought the situation under control until the MLA intervened, “I told the MLA to give a complaint if something wrong has happened. Now, we have registered an FIR based on the complaint.”

(With inputs from PTI and The Indian Express.)