KEEP SAFE VIDEOS OF GYANVAPI SURVEY, COURT TELLS PETITIONERS

HT Correspondent

LUCKNOW: The Varanasi district court on Tuesday directed four Hindu women to keep safe videos and photographs of a survey of the Gyanvapi Masjid complex, a day after clips of the controversial exercise leaked despite the court’s orders on confidentiality.

The four women, seeking unhindered rights to pray to Hindu idols installed within the mosque complex, had come to the court to surrender CDS of the survey. One of them even asked for a CBI probe into the leak.

On Monday, the district court gave copies of the footage in a sealed envelope to four of the five Hindu women petitioners, after they gave an affidavit to not make the content received public. Soon after, videos of the exercise went viral and were broadcast by some television channels.

On Tuesday, four of the five Hindu petitioners moved an application in the district court, seeking to submit the sealed envelopes containing the video footage and photographs of the survey. They also urged the court to order a probe into the leak. But the court didn’t take back the CDS.

Meanwhile, Vishwa Vedic Sanatan Sangh chief Jitendra Singh Vishen said he has decided to remove advocate Harishankar Jain from all cases, including the Gyanvapi case. Vishen’s niece, Rakhi Singh, is one of the petitioners in the case and was being represented by Harishankar.

“I have decided decided to cancel the ‘ vakalatnamas’ of advocate Harishankar Jain from all our cases, including the Shringar Gauri-gyanvapi case – from the district court to the Supreme Court,” he said.