Omar Rashid Lucknow
Amid tight security, a team of lawyers and opposing legal parties led by a court-appointed advocate commissioner on Friday conducted a videographic survey of the Maa Shringar Gauri site located at the back of the western wall of the Gyanvapi mosque in the Gyanvapi Masjid-Kashi Vishwanath Temple Complex in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh.
A local court had recently appointed court commissioner Ajay Kumar Mishra to inspect the site, videograph it and submit a report. While the court order did not specifically state if the survey would include videography inside the Gyanvapi Masjid, its caretakers said they would object to any videography inside the mosque.
The survey team reached the site after the Friday namaz. Apart from minor cases of sloganeering outside the mosque, the situation remained peaceful. A woman who offered namaz near the premises of the Kashi Vishwanath temple was evicted by the police who said that she was mentally challenged.
Abhay Nath Yadav, a lawyer for the mosque, said the survey started around 4 p.m. and the videography of the stone slabs where the petitioners claimed there was an image of goddess Shringar Gauri was done. Around 5.30 p.m., the court commissioner and the team went to the main gate and said they would conduct videography even inside the mosque, Mr. Yadav said. “We objected saying that there were no clear orders by the court for conducting videography inside the mosque.”
The lawyer alleged that the commissioner was acting in a partial manner. He added that on Saturday he would file an application in court demanding that the commissioner be changed.
Shivam Gaur, a lawyer for the Hindu plaintiffs, said the survey started from the western side. “We found some evidence that is commensurate to our case. Things were found as per the map prepared by us,” he said.
Mr. Gaur said they could not enter the mosque due to objections by the masjid committee but expected the videography of the mosque and the tehkana (cellar) to be done on Saturday. Apart from the commissioner and his assistants, the five plaintiffs and their lawyers, videographers and five members from the Muslim side were part of the survey.
Civil judge (senior division) Ravi Kumar Diwakar had appointed the court commissioner after one Rakhi Singh and four other plaintiffs filed a suit in April last year saying that they were entitled to perform daily darshan, pooja and all the rituals of Maa Shringar Gauri, Lord Ganesh, Lord Hanuman and other “visible and invisible deities within old temple complex” situated at settlement plot number 9,130 in the area of ward and police station Dashwamedh.
The plaintiffs submitted that at the back of the western wall of the mosque, there existed an image of goddess Shringar Gauri since time immemorial.
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