Court Orders Sealing of Area in Gyanvapi Mosque where “Shivling” is Reportedly Found
NEW DELHI, May 16: A local court in Varanasi on Monday ordered immediate sealing of the place where “the shivling has been found” within the Kashi Vishwanath Temple-Gyanvapi Mosque complex and said that no one should be allowed within the sealed area.
While accepting the application of the lawyer from the Hindu petitioners, the court of Civil Judge (Senior Division) Ravi Kumar Diwakar said, “District Magistrate, Varanasi, is directed to immediately seal the place where the Shivling has been found. No person should be allowed to enter the place which will be sealed. The responsibility for the security and custodianship of the place which will be sealed will be considered personally of Varanasi district magistrate, Varanasi police commissioner and the CRPF commandant, Varanasi.”
The court, while hearing the application, also said the responsibility for supervising the sealing of the place will be of the UP director general of police (DGP) and the UP chief secretary (Administration). An application was filed on Monday in the Varanasi court by Advocate Hari Shankar Jain, representing the five Hindu women petitioners, saying that a “Shivling is found in the ablution water tank of the mosque at the place where waju khana is there” in the masjid complex.
The caretakers of the mosque, however, claimed that the said object was not a shivling but a part of a stone fountain in the wazu khana (ablution tank) of the mosque. They said they would file an objection to the civil court’s orders and challenge what they termed was a one-sided sealing of a portion of the mosque premises in higher courts.
The court commission activity concluded with videographed inspection session lasting for over 135 hours since May 6. The Court Commissioner appointed by a Civil Judge is mandated to submit a report on the inspection on Tuesday.
After the court-commission proceeding was concluded on Monday, Hari Shankar Jain in the court of Civil Judge Diwakar claiming that a shivling was found in the mosque complex during the inspection. It was an “important piece of evidence,” said Jain, demanding that the area be sealed and entry to it be prohibited.
Judge Diwakar admitted the application and directed District Magistrate (Varanasi) Kaushal Raj Sharma to immediately seal the area where the shivling was found and prohibit entry of all persons.
While Vishnu Jain, lawyer for the Hindu plaintiffs, claimed that a shivling measuring 12 feet by 4 feet in diameter and three feet deep was found at the ablution tank, his colleague Subash Nandan Chaturvedi said the Court Commissioner had got the water of the tank drained on the request of the Hindu plaintiffs. “There we found all the evidence we had claimed. The symbols of Hindu religion and culture were found in those premises,” Chaturvedi told journalists.
Sayin Yasin, joint secretary of the Anjuman Intezamia Masajid, the caretaker of the mosque, said the object claimed to be a shivling was a part of a fountain. “We wouldn’t describe it as a Shivling. It is a part of a fountain,” Yasin said. Yasin said Mughal-era mosques usually had a hauz (water tank) which also had fountains. The fountain was made of stone and approximately two feet high and two feet wide. The “small fountain” was situated in the middle of a well-like fountain measuring 2.5 feet high and 5 feet in girth, Yasin said.
Yasin claimed that the court issued a “one-sided order” on the basis of an application submitted by the Hindu plaintiffs and not by the court-appointed Commissioner, who is the neutral party in the matter. Moreover, Yasin said, the mosque caretakers were not handed a copy of the application submitted by the opposite side. Asked if the sealing of the wazu khana would disrupt daily prayer of Muslims at the mosque, Yasin said they were making arrangements for ablution in a bathroom.
Briefing journalists after the completion of the court commission inspection, DM Kaushal Raj Sharma said the proceedings on the last day lasted two hours and fifteen minutes. “The next order of the court will be known on Tuesday. All sides are satisfied and they have all cooperated,” Sharma claimed and refused to divulge any details about the inspection saying that only the court was the “custodian of the information.”
Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya took to Twitter to express pleasure at the claims made by the Hindu plaintiffs on the discovery of a shivling. “No matter how much you hide the truth, one day it comes to the fore because ‘truth is Shiv’,” Maurya said.
(Manas Dasgupta)
