Keep Gyanvapi survey videos safe, court tells petitioners

Four of the five Hindu petitioners moved an application in the district court, seeking to submit the sealed envelopes containing the video footage and photographs of the survey.

The Varanasi district court on Tuesday directed four Hindu women to keep safe videos and photographs of a survey of the Gyanvapi Masjid complex, a day after clips of the controversial exercise leaked despite the court’s orders on confidentiality.

On Monday, the district court had given copies of the footage in a sealed envelope to four of the five Hindu women petitioners, after they gave an affidavit to not make the content received public. (File photo)

The court also fixed July 4 as the next date of hearing.

The four women, seeking unhindered rights to pray to Hindu idols installed within the mosque complex, had come to the court to surrender CDs of the survey. One of them even asked for a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into the leak.

On Monday, the district court had given copies of the footage in a sealed envelope to four of the five Hindu women petitioners, after they gave an affidavit to not make the content received public.

Soon after, videos of the exercise went viral on social media and were broadcast by some television channels.

On Tuesday, four of the five Hindu petitioners moved an application in the district court, seeking to submit the sealed envelopes containing the video footage and photographs of the survey. They also urged the court to order a probe and ascertain the source of the leak. But the court didn’t take back the CDs. Each of the petitioners submitted the envelope in the court and said that these were still sealed.

Advocates for the Anjuman Intezamia Masajid Committee, which manages the Gyanvapi mosque, also moved an application in the district court, seeking a probe into the video leak.