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Keep safe videos of Gyanvapi survey, court tells petitioners
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.
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.
The court also fixed July 4 as the next date of hearing in the case.
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 –Sita Sahu, Rekha Pathak, Manju Vyas and Laxmi Devi – 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. “I moved an application in the district court, seeking a CBI probe into the leak of video footage of the Gyanvapi survey report. The court fixed July 4 as the date of hearing,” said Shivam Gaur, advocate for Rekha Pathak.
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.
Akhlaque Ahmad, one of the advocates of the Anjuman Intezamia Masajid Committee, said, “The petitioners received the video footage of the survey after giving an undertaking that they would not misuse the footage and would not share it with the public and media. But the footage was leaked. Inquiry is needed to find out who leaked the video and from where it reached news channels.”
On August 18, 2021, the Hindu women filed a suit in the civil court in Varanasi, seeking unhindered rights to worship Hindu idols at the Maa Shringar Gauri Sthal. Their plea prompted a local court in April to order a survey of the premises and Hindu petitioners claimed that a shivling was found during the exercise. The local court ordered protection for the site. Days later, the top court refrained from interfering with the survey, but transferred the suit from the Varanasi civil judge to the district judge for deciding the mosque management committee’s objections against the inquiry.
The Muslim side claims that the structure is a fountain and the Hindu petition is barred by the 1991 Places of Worship Act, which locks the position or “religious identity” of any place of worship as it existed on August 15, 1947.
Meanwhile, Vishwa Vedic Sanatan Sangh chief Jitendra Singh Vishen said he has decided to remove advocate Harishankar Jain from all cases, including the Gyanvapi case. Vishen’s niece, Rakhi Singh, is one of the petitioners in the case and was being represented by Harishankar.
“I have decided decided to cancel the ‘vakalatnamas’ of advocate Harishankar Jain from all our cases, including the Shringar Gauri-Gyanvapi case – from the district court to the Supreme Court,” he said.
