Videography, survey in Gyanvapi Mosque premises resume, basement surveyed

The mosque management committee has indicated that it will cooperate for now with the team assigned the task by a local court

The videography survey was undertaken in the basement of the Gyanvapi Mosque, adjacent to the famous Kashi Vishwanath Temple in Varanasi on Saturday, amid tight security arrangements.

The survey, which continued for four hours, began at eight in the morning in presence of lawyers from the contesting parties. It will resume again on Sunday.

According to sources, there were four rooms in the basement of the mosque. While three rooms were under the possession of Muslims, the other room was under the possession of Hindus. The lawyers representing the contesting parties remained tightlipped when asked about the contents of the rooms in the basement.

A court in Varanasi had a couple of days ago rejected an application moved by the Muslim contestants seeking to stop the videography survey and remove the advocate commissioner Ajai Kumar Mishra, ordering the survey and videography would continue.

Read | 'Atmosphere of fear': Gyanvapi case judge says concerned about safety

The court also directed that the survey work be completed by May 17 and the report of the same be submitted to the court.

Muslim parties had objected to the survey work and contended that it was being done without any orders from the court. They had also sought the removal of Ajai Mishra.

Five women have filed a petition in the court seeking permission for daily worship at the Shringar Gauri temple, which was allegedly situated inside the Kashi Vishwanath-Gyanvapi Mosque premises. The order of the court for undertaking survey and videography at the premises came on their petition.

Another petition filed by one Vijay Shankar Rastogi, who had contended that the entire premises belonged to the Kashi Vishwanath and that the Gyanvapi Mosque was only a part of the temple, was also pending in the court. The petition had been filed in 1991.

The premises had been a bone of contention between the two communities for the past several decades but there was renewed clamor to ''take back'' the Kashi Vishwanath Temple premises by the saffron outfits after the favourable decision of the apex court in the Ram Temple case.

The Akhil Bhartiya Sant Samiti (ABSS) had earlier asked the Muslims to ''hand over'' the Kashi Vishwanath Temple land in Varanasi on which, according to them, the Gyanvapi Mosque currently existed and had threatened to launch an agitation to 'liberate' the same if it did not happen.

Some saffron leaders had even threatened to demolish what they termed the 'blots' on the rich history of Hinduism and must be 'removed' without delay.