VARANASI: Since time immemorial, cremation rituals have never stopped at Manikarnika Ghat the way they were for an hour on Monday afternoon.

There was no cremation during the hour-long protest against delay in arrest of persons who had alleged that betting , running into crores of rupees on the number of corpses arriving at the ghat, had become a flourishing business in the ancient city of salvation.

Recently, some news channels had aired report in which some individuals in masks made these allegations of large-scale betting on the number of corpses arriving at the ghat for cremation on daily basis.

Taking serious note of the accusation, Chowk police registered a case against two unidentified persons under the sections of the Gambling Act. But in the wake of public resentment, police also issued notices to seven persons under Section 160 of the CrPC asking them to record their statement pertaining to the episode.

Later, senior superintendent of police A K Mishra informed reporters that six persons had recorded their statements. Chowk police also released photographs of suspected persons who had made these allegations. But, no arrest had been made in this connection so far.

The delay in arrest fuelled the anger of Shiv Sainiks , who staged a massive demonstration at Manikarnika Ghat under the leadership of divisional unit president Gulshan Kapoor . President of Kendriya Dev Deepawali Samiti Acharya Vagish Shastri, Domraja family's Kunwar Vishwanath Chawdhary and traders dealing in cremation-related material joined the agitation. The protest paralysed cremation of bodies arriving at the ghat. Addressing a meeting, speakers described betting on the number of bodies arriving at the ghat as "shameful and an attack on religious sentiments and piousness of the Mahashmashaan." They threatened to intensify the stir if police failed to arrest the accused.

The SSP said some names had cropped up during investigation and efforts were on to arrest them. But, he refused to reveal the identity. Sources claimed that two masked youths who made the accusations on camera as common men had been associated with local media in the past, but now they were on the run, the police said. The SSP said that the truth would be revealed once the two masked persons were arrested.