Varanasi court fixes February 15 for hearing plea seeking ASI survey of Gyanvapi basements

PTI

Lucknow, February 6

A Varanasi court on Tuesday fixed February 15 for the hearing of a petition seeking a survey of all closed basements in the Gyanvapi mosque complex by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI).

According to the petition, there are "secret cellars" inside the basements and it is necessary to survey them to reveal the entire truth of the Gyanvapi mosque, which Hindus claimed was built on the remains of a pre-existing temple.

The counsel for the Hindu side, Madan Mohan Yadav, said acting District Judge Anil Kumar had fixed February 15 as the next date of hearing on the petition.

He said that on the petition of Rakhi Singh, lawyers said that there are eight basements in the Gyanvapi complex which had not been surveyed earlier.

He claimed that the high court had earlier ordered in a 1991 case that the remaining survey be conducted.

The lawyers for the Gyanvapi mosque management committee expressed their objection to the demand for a survey and said that there was no such order of the high court.

There is no basis to order a survey of the remaining basements, they said.

After hearing both sides, the district court gave the next date.

The petitioner, Rakhi Singh, is a founding member of the Vishwa Vedic Sanatan Sangh and is one of the parties in the Maa Shringar Gauri case, which led to the survey of the complex by the ASI.

In the petition, she asked for all closed cellars in the Gyanvapi mosque complex, adjacent to the Kashi Vishwanath temple, to be surveyed by the ASI, her advocate Anupam Dwivedi said. 

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