Yamuna dead fish: Delhi Police FIR under 3 BNS sections, cause unknown

Representative image. Goutam1962, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons

Why it matters

Thousands of people will stand in or near the Yamuna for Chhath Puja on 15 and 16 November, and the cause of the fish deaths is still unknown. The FIR targets the videos, not the source of any pollution, so the question of what is in the water remains open.

Delhi Police have registered an FIR over videos of Yamuna dead fish floating near Sonia Vihar in Northeast Delhi, a day before Chhath Puja devotees head to the river’s ghats. The cause of the fish deaths has not been established, police said, according to the Indian Express.

The FIR was filed at Wazirabad police station against unidentified people, on a complaint from the Delhi government’s Irrigation and Flood Control Department. India Today reported late on 14 November that police had since arrested a man linked to the videos and released him on bail at the police station, because the offences are bailable.

What the Yamuna dead fish FIR covers

North district Deputy Commissioner of Police Niharika Bhatt confirmed the case. “Further investigation is in progress to establish the facts,” she said, as quoted by the Indian Express. Police have named three sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS), the criminal code that replaced the Indian Penal Code.

BNS section	What it deals with
353	Statements that lead to public mischief, such as spreading false reports that could cause fear or alarm
352	Intentional insult meant to provoke a breach of the peace
240	Giving false information about an offence

The Yamuna fish FIR is about the videos and what was said with them. It does not settle whether the fish died from pollution, and police have not said what killed them. The Delhi Jal Board has separately asked police to act against unidentified people spreading claims online that chemicals were discharged into the river, the Indian Express reported.

India Today’s report on the arrest relied on unnamed police sources for why the man was held. NewsPlainly is not naming him, as no official has done so on record.

The political row over the videos

The videos of the Sonia Vihar fish deaths surfaced about two days before the FIR and quickly turned into a fight between the BJP-led Delhi government and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).

Delhi Water Minister Parvesh Verma accused AAP of dumping dead fish into the river to discredit the government and its work to clean the Yamuna, both outlets reported. AAP rejected the charge, questioned the government’s claims about cleaning the river and demanded an inquiry into whether the water is contaminated, India Today reported.

On the Yamuna dead fish, neither side’s claim has been backed by a test result in the reports read. Neither outlet carried a laboratory finding on the water or the fish.

This is not the first such scene this autumn. Dead fish were found along the Yamuna banks near Burari in North Delhi less than a month earlier, both outlets reported, though they gave different estimates of how many.

Yamuna dead fish and the Chhath Puja ghats

The timing matters because Chhath Puja brings large crowds to the river. Devotees offer prayers to the setting sun on the evening of 15 November and to the rising sun on the morning of 16 November, and thousands are expected at the Yamuna ghats on both days, the Indian Express reported.

Delhi has prepared 1,482 Chhath sites this year, 29 of them along the Yamuna, as NewsPlainly reported earlier this week. Most sites are neighbourhood ponds and temporary ghats, not the river.

The reports on the Sonia Vihar fish deaths did not carry any advisory from the Delhi government or the Delhi Pollution Control Committee about the water at the river ghats.

How the week unfolded

• About 12 November: videos of dead fish near Sonia Vihar spread on social media.
• Before the FIR: Parvesh Verma accuses AAP of dumping fish; AAP denies it and asks for a contamination inquiry.
• By 14 November: the Irrigation and Flood Control Department complains and the FIR is registered at Wazirabad police station; the Delhi Jal Board files its own complaint about chemical-discharge claims.
• 14 November, night: a man is arrested and bailed at the police station, India Today reports.
• 15 and 16 November: Chhath Puja prayers at the ghats.

Frequently asked questions

Why did fish die in the Yamuna at Sonia Vihar?

The cause has not been established, Delhi Police said. The reports read did not include any laboratory finding on the water or the fish.

Under which sections is the Yamuna dead fish FIR registered?

BNS sections 353 (public mischief), 352 (insult to provoke breach of peace) and 240 (false information about an offence), at Wazirabad police station.

Was anyone arrested?

India Today reported that a man was arrested and released on bail at the police station, as the sections are bailable.