India, March 24 -- A court in Varanasi on Monday rejected the bail applications of 14 people who were arrested a week ago after they allegedly held an Iftar party and ate chicken biryani on a boat in the Ganga River.

The 14 were charged with defiling a place of worship, hurting religious sentiments and causing public nuisance and water pollution. Subsequently, the police had also added a charge regarding the alleged forcible seizure of the boat, according to Shashank Shekhar Tripathi, the counsel for complainant Rajat Jaiswal, who is the BJP Yuva Morcha's city unit chief.

"Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Amit Kumar Yadav observed that the charges are grave and non-bailable; therefore, there are no sufficient grounds to grant bail a...