Gyanvapi mosque case: Let there be communal harmony and peace, says Varanasi district judge

VARANASI: 'Let communal harmony and peace prevail (bhaichara bana rahe)', with this advice, Varanasi district judge Ajay Kumar Vishvesha handed over the copies of the court commission report on Gyanvapi to the four plaintiffs on Monday.
The four women plaintiffs in the Gyanvapi-Shringar Gauri worshipping case received the photos and video footages of the court-mandated videography survey of the Gyanvapi premises in sealed envelopes on Monday after furnishing an undertaking before the district judge court that they would not make its contents public.
Before handing over the report, the judge is said to have remarked: "Report sirf bhai chara ke liye gupt hai. Bhai chara bana rahe, shanti rahe (Report is under wraps for communal harmony. Let us maintain it. Let there be peace)."
However, within a few minutes of the release of the photos and video footage to the four women plaintiffs, the leaked video footage was being aired by many television news channels, inviting a sharp response from the plaintiffs' lawyer Vishnu Jain.
“The photos and video footage received from the court in sealed envelopes on furnishing of undertakings were not opened by the plaintiffs. They are still in sealed packets as received from the court. We will surrender all the four sealed envelopes containing the photos and video footage of the Gyanvapi survey before the court on Tuesday,” he said.
The mosque management committee, Anjuman Intejamia Masajid (AIM) advocate Abhay Nath Yadav said, “It’s a matter of investigation how video footage of the court commission survey leaked to the channels.”
Petitioners’ advocate Subhash Nandan Chaturvedi said, "As per the court directive, plaintiffs in the petition 696/2021 Laxmi Devi, Sita Sahu, Manju Vyas and Rekha Pathak gave their affidavit, declaring that they would not make public the contents of the photos and video footages of the court-mandated videography survey of Gyanvapi mosque.”
“Each of them also paid Rs 2,100 for the matter. After it, the court released the CDs of the photos and video footage in sealed envelopes,” he added.
The lawyers of the AIM could not receive those photos and video footage. AIM lawyer Abhay Nath Yadav said, “The formalities of furnishing an undertaking as per the court directive could not be completed on Monday. We will soon complete the formalities submitting an affidavit and deposit the prescribed fee to receive the CDs from court.”
He added that they would now file the objection against the survey report on the next date of hearing of this case on July 4.
While beginning the hearing of the Gyanvapi case on May 24, the court of the district judge had given time of a week to file objections on the court commission report. Advocates of both parties said that as court commission reports with photos and video footage could not be received timely, filing objections was difficult for them in the given time.
Gyanvapi survey video footage and photographs collected during the court commission work in Gyanvapi mosque from May 6 to 16 and submitted with a report in eight chips of 32 GB each.