The district court of Varanasi on Monday will pass order on a plea seeking the key to the basement of the Gyanvapi mosque complex be handed over to the district magistrate.
The grandson of priest Somnath Vyas, Shailendra Kumar Pathak, has filed the petition in the court of civil judge Nitesh Kumar Sinha in September, expressing apprehensions about the Muslim side’s attempt to establish its influence over the courtyard and pleaded that the key be handed over to the DM. Rastogi had given an application and appealed to the judge to make him a party to the case.
Yadav, who is Rastogi’s lawyer in the case, has pleaded that the key be handed over to the DM, fearing that the contents in the basement could be tampered with. The Archeological Survey of India (ASI) is conducting a scientific survey of the Gyanvapi premises, located next to the Kashi Vishwanath temple, to determine whether the 17th-century mosque was constructed over a Hindu temple.
