UP eatery owner held after video of employee spitting on bread goes viral

Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh: A purported video showing a teenager spitting on bread while preparing it at an eatery in Saharanpur district has gone viral on social media, leading to the arrest of the facility's owner, police said on Thursday.

The minor employee involved in the incident has also been apprehended, they said.

Following the video's circulation on social media, a complaint was lodged at the local police station against the eatery's owner Osman, the police said.

"The incident took place at the eatery named Dastarkhwan, located near the Grass Market in Chhutmalpur town under the Fatehpur police station jurisdiction. A minor employee at the hotel was seen spitting on the bread while preparing it, and this video was circulated on social media," Superintendent of Police (Rural) Sagar Jain told PTI.

The complainant, Nitish Badthwal, alleged that the eatery employee's actions were offensive and hurtful to the religious sentiments of his community, Jain said.

"The complaint requested action against the hotel, including its closure," he added.

Based on the complaint, the police have registered a case and arrested the hotel owner and taken the minor employee into custody, the SP said.

The FIR in the case has been lodged under Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita section 196 (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc., and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony), according to police.

Further investigation into the matter is ongoing, they added.