Gyanvapi Mosque Case: 3-Day Videography Survey Concludes, Petitioner Claims 'Conclusive Evidence' Found

Gyanvapi Mosque Case: The district court directed for videography survey of the Masjid complex to be completed by Tuesday.

New Delhi: A court-mandated videography survey of the Gyanvapi Masjid complex took place in Varanasi on Monday, the team visited the site for the third consecutive day amid tight security. Around 65 per cent of the survey was completed till Sunday, news agency PTI reported officials as saying. The mosque is located close to the iconic Kashi Vishwanath temple and the local court is hearing a plea by a group of women seeking permission for daily prayers before the idols on its outer walls.

Sohan Lal Arya, a petitioner in the Gyanvapi mosque case has claimed that the team found "conclusive evidence": "The survey by the Court commission has concluded. We have found conclusive evidence."

Varanasi District Magistrate Kaushal Raj Sharma said that "no details of the survey of Gyanvapi mosque were disclosed by any member of the commission." "The court is the custodian of the information about the survey. One member was debarred from the commission for about a few mins yesterday, later admitted to the commission," he added, as quoted by ANI.

Police Commissioner A Satish Ganesh stated that the police spoke with all stakeholders and reached a consensus that it os important to follow the court's order. "We also cleared people's misconceptions, worked on confidence building. The 3-day survey has ended. We thank the people of Kashi for their cooperation," he added.

Advocate Vishal Singh, the Court-appointed special assistant commissioner in Varanasi said, "We will try to submit our report as soon as possible. The survey was conducted in an unhindered manner."

Gyanvapi Mosque Case: 65% Of Survey Work Completed On Sunday

The Varanasi District Magistrate had said yesterday that about 65 per cent of the survey work was completed and all the parties were directed to remain present at the site on Monday.

"About 65 per cent of the survey work has been completed. The survey will continue on Monday as well. This is completely an archaeological survey work, since the advocates were not familiar with the survey work, the work took some time," Madan Mohan Yadav, the counsel for the Hindu side in the case, had said on Sunday, as quoted by PTI.

The survey was stalled last week following objections by the mosque committee which claimed that the advocate commissioner appointed by the court for the survey did not have the mandate to film inside the premises.

Supreme Court Refused To Grant Interim Order Of Status Quo

In his order on Thursday last week, District Civil Judge (Senior Division) Ravi Kumar Diwakar had turned down a plea by the mosque committee to replace Ajay Kumar Mishra, who was appointed advocate commissioner by the court to survey the Gyanvapi-Gauri Shringar complex.

The judge also appointed two more lawyers to help the court commissioner with the survey while direction for it to be completed by Tuesday.

The district court had stated that locks should be broken if the keys are not available to access certain areas of the complex for the survey. It also permitted district authorities to register FIRs if the survey was not allowed.

Last week on Friday, the Supreme Court refused to grant an interim order of status quo on the survey. However, the top court agreed to consider listing the plea of a Muslim party against the survey.

Advocate Yadav had informed that the survey team included the three court-appointed advocate commissioners, five lawyers each from the two sides, and an assistant besides a videography team.

(With Agency Inputs)