UP Police Arrests Three after Ghaziabad Mayor Accuses Muslim Kids of ‘Trying to Throw Meat into River’

Prayagraj: On May 24, Sunita Dayal, mayor of Ghaziabad and former Uttar Pradesh Bharatiya Janata Party vice-president, posted an extraordinary video on her official Facebook page claiming, “Today I caught two Muslim children trying to throw remains of cow meat near Hindon Barrage in Indirapuram.” 

“Isi desh ka khayenge aur  yahin gandagi karenge (they live off this country, yet they dirty it too),” she could be heard saying in the over two-minute video posted on her page.

A 2024 study in Down to Earth characterised the Hindon river as "a drain carrying domestic and industrial waste" and an internet search failed to locate any previous insistence by Dayal on the filing of cases despite  many videos in the public domain showing people throwing garbage in the river.

Two children are seen in the video she posted, wearing skull caps and carrying a yellow sack on the carrier of a bicycle. In her video, to which a watermark has been added, the children's faces are clearly visible and are not blurred – an offence under the Juvenile Justice Act. Visibly scared, they stood listening to the mayor haranguing them, timidly answering questions thrown at them. 

“Dimag patthar bana diya hai inka (their brains have been turned into stone)... is madarasse par na maine tala lagwaya toh baat nahi (just see how I will ensure that this madrassa is sealed forever),” Dayal could be heard as telling the children in an explicitly communal diatribe. 

“We called the police. Sending kids to throw it (meat) away, this is just so wrong,” mayor Dayal told The Wire.

Contrary to the mayor’s claim, however, the video does not show the children throwing any material into the river. 

A day later, on May 25, UP Police arrested three Muslim men associated with a local madrasa, based on the mayor’s allegations. Forensic examination of the meat sample is also underway. 

Speaking to The Wire, Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) Abhishek Srivastava, posted at Indirapuram, confirmed the arrests. Srivastava said: “An FIR has been registered under Sections 271, 272 and 279 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) against three persons namely Zubair, Aijaz and Shoaib.”

While Section 271 of the BNS pertains to negligent acts likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life with a prison sentence that may extend to six months, Section 272 of the BNS is related to malignant acts likely to spread infection of disease dangerous to life and prescribes imprisonment that may extend to two years. Section 279 of the BNS, on the other hand, pertains to the offence of fouling a public water body with a maximum sentence of six months’ imprisonment. 

It is not clear how often the local police – or the UP police as a whole – have invoked Section 279 before, given that the state is home to some of the most polluted water bodies in the world.

When asked about the nature of allegations against the accused, ACP Srivastava, told this reporter, “Allegations, for now, are related to them [referring to accused] throwing meat in an open area and throwing it in the river thus, causing pollution.”

As far as claims related to the remains of cow meat are concerned, the ACP, told The Wire, “Sampling has been done by a veterinary doctor and it has been sent for forensic examination. Based on that report, further action will be taken.”

The ACP also said that no action was taken by the police against the two minors who were seen in the video earlier. “Three persons associated with a local madrassa had told these kids to dispose of the remains so accordingly initial action was taken. All [those arrested] are majors,” ACP Srivastava told The Wire. 

The families of the three Muslim men arrested by the Ghaziabad Police could not be contacted for a response at the time of writing this report. 

Mayor Dalal told The Wire that during a chance visit in the area she spotted garbage littered there and had alighted from her vehicle. “It was then that I saw those kids accompanied by two other people. Then we figured they (the Muslim kids) were carrying meat in a gunny bag. Kids also admitted that it was cow’s meat,” Dayal further claimed.

‘About to throw’

The video on Dayal's social media page shows one of the Muslim boys uttering the word ‘gaay (Hindi for ‘cow’)’ – under visible duress as a man in the background can be heard asking him what kind of meat he was carrying – but the entire footage does not present any evidence related to the mayor's allegation of the children or associated adults throwing the sack and its contents into the river.

When asked whether she saw the boys trying to throw the ‘meat remains’ in the river, Dayal told this reporter, “They couldn’t throw it, I just reached on time, while they had just stretched their hand (for disposal) and were stopped by local boys. At first, they (Muslim kids] told me it was garbage, upon opening (the gunny bag) I figured it wasn’t waste material but meat.”

Did the kids admit say to the mayor that they were going to throw the contents into the river? “Phenk hi rhe the, kehne ki zaroorat nahi thi (they were about to throw, it did not need to be said),” she claimed. However, neither she nor anyone else has any video evidence to back this charge.

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