Beef instead of mutton? Waiter at Kolkata’s Olypub arrested after YouTuber’s viral video

Kolkata Police officials said the arrest was made following a preliminary probe into a complaint filed by Chakraborty at Park Street Police Station on Friday night.

The investigation into the incident is ongoing, police added.

Officials said they are examining whether the alleged serving of beef was the result of negligence, miscommunication, or a deliberate act.

In a video that went viral on social media, Chakraborty was seen confronting the waiter, accusing him of intentionally serving beef despite an order for mutton, as the restaurant manager stood nearby.

“Do you know I was made to eat beef despite being a Brahmin? Will you eat pork being a Muslim? Is this a joke?” Chakraborty said in the video.

Chakraborty, who was accompanied by two others, including a woman, claimed they were not informed that the dish served was beef. “We were not even told that it was beef,” he said.

The restaurant manager was seen reprimanding the waiter for allegedly failing to properly communicate with the customers at the Park Street restaurant-bar.

The video was later removed from Chakraborty’s Facebook page but triggered mixed reactions online. While some users criticised Chakraborty for making what they described as communal remarks, others condemned the alleged serving of beef to a Hindu customer.

Arnab Nandi, who claims to be the former vice president of Rashtriya Hindu Vahini Sangh–Ujjain, wrote, “If this allegation is true, it is not merely a food-related lapse but a serious charge of hurting religious sentiments and breaching trust.”

Another user, Tinku Raj, commented, “If a Muslim were made to consume pork, the consequences would have been disastrous. The state would have been engulfed in flames by now.”

Sovik Banerjee described the incident as a “shocking allegation” and alleged a “deep conspiracy to corrupt religious faith.”

However, some netizens partially blamed Chakraborty, pointing out that Olypub is well known for serving beef dishes. Kiran Manna wrote, “He knew beef was available there. Restaurant mix-ups can happen due to pressure and miscommunication. It is unreasonable to blame one individual entirely.”

A section of social media users also demanded Chakraborty’s arrest, questioning how he failed to distinguish between beef and mutton. Mousumi Debnath alleged the incident was staged to incite communal tension ahead of elections and accused Chakraborty of making inflammatory remarks during a live broadcast.

The controversy soon took a political turn, with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the principal opposition party in the state, targeting the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC) government.

BJP IT Cell head Amit Malviya termed the incident a “warning” for Hindus in West Bengal and alleged that people could be “force-fed beef” if the TMC returns to power in the 2026 Assembly elections.

“Like in Bangladesh, Hindus in West Bengal are now being force-fed beef. These are not isolated incidents; they are warnings,” Malviya wrote on X. He further accused the state government of failing to curb cow smuggling and illegal slaughter, claiming that “Hindu sentiments do not matter.”