The police in Mahoba town of Uttar Pradesh on Thursday filed a first information report (FIR) against 43 Muslims for allegedly serving ‘non-vegetarian biryani’ to Hindus at the community feast organised at a religious event in Salat village in Charkhari area, Uttar Pradesh, reports PTI.

However, according to the report by Indian Express, the number to Muslims against whom the FIR was registered stood at 23.

The Hindu’s have alleged that they were served ‘beef mutton’ on purpose to hurt their religious sentiments.

The FIR has been registered under sections 153A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc., and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony), 295A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs), 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code.

The case was registered following the intervention by local Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Brijbhushan Rajpoot who visited the Salat village on Tuesday where some villagers raised the matter with him.

The alleged incident took place on August 31 in the Charkhari police station area of Mahoba during Urs of Sheikh Peer Baba, a religious congregation that the Muslim community of that area had organised. According to the FIR registered, ‘buffalo meat’ along with rice was served to the Hindu’s without their knowledge.

“On Saturday, there was a Urs organised at Salat village,” Rajpoot said, adding that, “Hindus, who are in majority here, also participate and even give donations for the same. As part of the event, every year there is a huge feast where vegetarian food is served.”

“This year, when the feast started, several Hindus were served rice on the pretext of it being baba ka prasad,” Rajpoot added. “When a few people started eating it, they found meat pieces and bones. 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 (cleansing). 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.”

One of the complainants in the FIR, Rajkumar Raikwar had claimed that only one amongst all who have been named in the FIR was guilty of serving non-vegetarian food while the rest were innocent.

Meanwhile, Charkhari Police Station House Officer Anoop Kumar Pandey said the main accused, Ansari, had promised a ‘biryani feast’ if his nephew recovered from an illness and as a result, non-vegetarian biryani was served at the event.

“While puri-sabzi was served at one stall, biryani was served at another. While those who eat non-vegetarian food ate the biryani, others did not. Later, there were rumours that there was buffalo meat in the biryani. I reached there and brought the situation under control. However, the MLA later intervened and the matter was again raised. I told the MLA to give a complaint if something wrong has happened. Now, we have registered an FIR based on the complaint,” said the SHO.

DIG, Chitrakoot range, Deepak Kumar, meanwhile, said that though he has heard about the alleged incident, was not aware of an FIR been filed.