Gyanvapi row: Fresh petition seeks action against mosque committee, Hindu seer files plea to worship Shivling
India Today
Two fresh petitions in the Gyanvapi Masjid row are up for hearing today: one seeking the registration of a case against the mosque management committee, another filed by a prominent seer who wants to worship the Shivling allegedly found in the premises.
In yet another development in the legal battle over the Gyanvapi Masjid, a Varanasi court will hear a plea on Monday seeking action against the mosque management committee for performing ‘wazu’ over the alleged Shivling found inside the complex.
At today’s hearing, Special Chief Judicial Magistrate Samarthama Nagesh Verma will decide whether the application seeking the registration of a case under 156(3) of the CrPC against the Anjuman Intezamia Masjid Committee’s joint secretary and hundreds of unknown persons is maintainable or not.
Wazu or Wudu is an act of ritual purification before offering namaz, performed by cleansing parts of the body with water.
The Hindu litigants in the Shringar Gauri-Gyanvapi Mosque case claim that a Shivling was discovered in the mosque’s wazukhana during the court-mandated survey of the premises. The finding has been disputed by the Muslim side, which claims the purported Shivling is actually a fountain.
READ | Protect 'shivling', allow namaz: What Supreme Court said in Gyanvapi case
Meanwhile, the Varanasi district court will take up Swami Avimukteshwaranand’s petition to offer prayers before the Shivling in the Gyanvapi Mosque. As the court is on break for summer vacation, a hearing has been sought from the vacation bench.
The prominent Hindu seer is on a hunger strike since Saturday, after the police stopped him from setting out for the Gyanvapi complex to worship the Shivling allegedly discovered there.