Varanasi: The three-day videography survey of the Gyanvapi Masjid complex in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, was completed a day before the case’s next hearing in court. The final day of filming began this morning amid increased security and limitations in the vicinity of the compound.
Around 65 percent of the survey was finished by Sunday.
The mosque is next to the famous Kashi Vishwanath temple, and a group of women has petitioned the local court for permission to worship daily before the idols on the mosque’s exterior walls.
“The survey commission has completed its work today. It has filmed all the places in detail. Three domes, underground basements, pond…all have been video recorded. The advocate commissioner will submit his report in the court tomorrow which will be prepared by the three commission members today. If the report is not finished on time, we will ask the court for more time,” the government lawyer Mahendra Prasad Pandey told NDTV, adding that the entire process was peaceful.
Five Hindu ladies have applied for year-round admission to the mosque’s shrine. Once a year, the place is available for prayers. Permission to pray to other “visible and invisible deities within the old temple complex” is also sought by the women.
The purpose of the survey is to determine whether or not the reports of Hindu symbols of devotion being present in the mosque complex are true. On April 18, 2021, five Delhi-based ladies — Rakhi Singh, Laxmi Devi, Sita Sahu, and others — filed a petition with the court, requesting that the opponents refrain from damaging the idols.
On April 26, the court of Civil Judge of Varanasi ordered videography of the Kashi Vishwanath-Gyanvapi mosque complex and other locations after Eid by the attorney commissioner, with a report due by May 10.
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