Varanasi: Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) team members during scientific survey at the Gyanvapi mosque complex.
Credit: PTI Photo
A Varanasi court on Thursday banned the media from covering the ongoing scientific survey of the contentious Gyanvapi mosque by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI).
District judge A K Vishwesh also directed the ASI officials, who were engaged in the work of the survey, not to speak to the media on the survey and keep the findings confidential.
The court passed the order on a plea by the Mosque Committee in which it had contended that the media had been publishing sensational claims about the findings of the survey.
The Muslim representatives had earlier threatened to 'disassociate' themselves from the survey if steps were not taken to check the 'rumours' that remains of idols were found inside the Mosque.
Lawyer for the Muslim petitioners, Mumtaz Ahmed had said that a section of the media had been ''spreading rumours'' that ''idols, trident and pitcher'' had been found in the cellar of the mosque during the ASI survey. ''We will disassociate ourselves with the survey if these rumours are not checked,'' Ahmed had said.
The scientific survey of the Mosque premises began again in Varanasi last week after the Allahabad High Court rejected the petition filed by the Muslim litigants seeking a stay on the Varanasi court's order for a scientific survey by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI).
The premises have been a bone of contention between the two communities for the past several decades but there was renewed clamor to ''take back'' the Kashi Vishwanath Temple premises by the saffron outfits after the favourable decision of the apex court in the Ayodhya's Ram Temple case.
The Hindu petitioners contended that a part of the temple had been demolished by the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb in the 17th century. The Muslim side contended that the Mosque existed before the reign of Aurangzeb and also claimed that the same had also been mentioned in the land records.