UP govt sets up panel to probe demolition of 100-year structure

The structure was razed in Ram Sanehi Ghat tehsil area of Barabanki on May 17 amid police deployment.

The Uttar Pradesh government has set up a three-member committee to probe the demolition of a decades-old structure in Barabanki town, which recently triggered a controversy, with Muslim groups calling it the illegal razing of a mosque and the local administration claiming it was residential encroachment on government land. The structure was razed in Ram Sanehi Ghat tehsil area of Barabanki on May 17 amid police deployment.

Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath. (PTI file photo)

According to senior government officials, the committee will also probe into alleged forging of documents to get the structure registered with the UP Sunni Central Waqf Board as a mosque in June 2019.

A senior government official said the panel will be chaired by Shiva Kant Dwivedi, the special secretary of minority welfare and waqf, and will comprise deputy director of minority welfare (Lucknow) and deputy director of minority welfare (Ayodhya) as its members.

Waqf Board chairman Zufar Ahmad Faruqi had termed the demolition “the high handedness of the local administration.”