Gyanvapi case: Petitioners say will return survey report after ‘leak’

The petitioners have now decided to return the videos to the court. “An undertaking was given in the court that videos will not be made public without the court’s order. Hence, the sealed packets of videos will be submitted to the district judge’s court with an application seeking action against those responsible for the leakage of the report. We will not take the videos back until the action is taken. The packets are still sealed and we have not opened them,” Sudhir Tripathi, the lawyer representing the petitioners, said.

District Government Counsel (Civil) Mahendra Prasad Pandey, meanwhile, told The Indian Express that four women petitioners – Rekha Pathak, Manju Vyas, Sita Sahu and Laxmi Devi – had received the copies of the report on Monday.   “The court has ordered to give videos of the commission’s report to the petitioners and respondents only, but with conditions that the videos will not be misused,” he said.

Sources said the court had received over 117 applications requesting for copies of the commission’s videos and photographs.

“I have received the commission’s video after submitting an undertaking that I will not misuse it and not make it public. I will have to use it for my case only,” Manju Vyas said, adding that the report would help her in filing objections.

Raees Ahmed, the counsel for Anjuman Intezamia Masajid, the committee that manages the Gyanvapi mosque, said that they were going to get the commission’s report on Tuesday.

🚨 Limited Time Offer | Express Premium with ad-lite for just Rs 2/ day 👉🏽 Click here to subscribe 🚨

“We will file the objections to the commission’s report after watching the survey videos,” Ahmed said.

On April 8, while hearing a petition filed by five women seeking the right to worship inside the Gyanvapi mosque complex, Civil Judge (Senior Division) Ravi Kumar Diwakar had appointed Ajay Kumar Mishra as advocate commissioner to carry out a videography survey of the Kashi complex. While passing an order on an application filed by the Anjuman Intezamia Masajid committee, which had accused court-appointed Mishra of being “biased”, the court on May 12 appointed two more advocate commissioners — lawyers Vishal Singh and Ajay Pratap Singh — to assist him. The court later removed Mishra. Singh and Mishra both have submitted separate reports of the survey.