Hours after court orders, prayers performed in cellar of Gyanvapi mosque

Prayers were performed in a cellar of the Gyanvapi mosque here on Wednesday night following court orders allowing the resumption of a practice set to have being discontinued three decades back Kashi Vishwanath temple trust president saidEarlier on Wednesday the district court ruled that a priest can perform prayers before the idols in a cellar of the Gyanvapi Masjid a significant development in the legal battle over the mosque adjacent to the Kashi Vishwanath templeWATCH A priest offers prayers at Vyas Ji ka Tehkhana inside Gyanvapi mosque in Varanasi after District court orderVisuals confirmed by Vishnu Shankar Jain the lawyer for the Hindu side in the Gyanvapi case pictwittercommUB6TMGpETmdash ANI ANI February 1 2024Vyas jis cellar was opened after 31 years for prayers temple trust president Nagendra Pandey told PTI He said the southern cellar was opened at around 1030 pm on Wednesday Asked if prayers were performed in the basement he said YesIt was necessary to follow the courts orders so the district administration made all the arrangements with great promptness Pandey added District Magistrate S Rajlingam said I have complied with the courts orderSome locals claimed that after cleaning the cellar an aarti of Goddess Lakshmi and Lord Ganesh was performed Official sources in the district administration said at around 930 pm on Wednesday the members of the KashiVishwanath temple trust were called and the barricades before the Nandi statue facing the mosques wazukhana were removedThe court had directed the local administration to make arrangements within seven days for prayers in the cellar This will involve proper arrangements with metal barricades at the complex it saidTaking a swipe at the Yogi Adityanath government in the state Samajwadi Party President Akhilesh Yadav said the haste displayed by the BJP in following the court orders is an attempt to prevent any legal recourseDue process has to be maintained while following any court order The Varanasi Court fixed a 7 day period for it making arrangements What we are seeing now is a concerted effort to go beyond the due process and prevent any legal recourse that can be taken Yadav said on XThe order by Judge A K Vishvesha came a day after an Archeological Survey of India ASI report on the mosque complex was made public The ASI survey ordered by the same court in connection with a related case suggested that the mosque was constructed during Aurangzebs rule over the remains of a Hindu templeWednesdays order was delivered on the plea of Shailendra Kumar Pathak who claimed that his maternal grandfather priest Somnath Vyas offered prayers till December 1993 according to Hindu side counsel Madan Mohan Yadav Pathak said the puja was stopped during the tenure of former chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav after the Babri Mosque in Ayodhya was demolished on December 6 1992During the hearing the Muslim sides disputed the petitioners version It said no idols existed in the cellar so there was no question of prayers being offered there till 1993In an earlier order on January 17 the Varanasi court had directed that the district magistrate should take charge of the cellar But it had not then given any directions on the right to offer prayers thereMumtaz Ahmed who represented the Muslim side said The district judge today gave its final verdict by giving the right of worship to Hindus We will now go to the High Court against this decisionThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever