SP chief seeks judicial probe, BJP MP justifies demolition

LUCKNOW: Samajwadi Party (SP) chief and former chief minister Akhilesh Yadav on Wednesday demanded an inquiry by a sitting high court judge into the demolition of an old mosque in Barabanki even as the local Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Upendra Rawat wrote to chief minister Yogi Adityanath justifying its razing.

Rawat said the claim that the Barabanki mosque was centuries’ old was misplaced.

“I did all the fact-check. What I found was that though the Sunni Central Waqf Board has claimed that it was a centuries’ old mosque, the fact is that it was registered only in 2018,” Rawat said on the phone from Barabanki.

Akhilesh Yadav, however, said the demolition of the “100-year” old mosque in the Ram Sanehi Ghat area of Barabanki was an act of misuse of power by the BJP, which was “condemnable”.

Yadav said the administration’s move was against the concept of “maintaining communal harmony as per the provisions of the Indian constitution”.

Yadav also said the BJP was apparently attempting to increase communal tension in view of the forthcoming assembly elections in the state. The polls are due in early 2022.

However, the BJP MP demanded an inquiry to check whether registration of all lands by the Sunni Board for mosques was genuine.

In his letter to the chief minister, Rawat alleged that the action was taken in the Barabanki mosque case after an inquiry.

“I would request that an inquiry be set up to identify those officers who helped the Sunni Waqf Board occupy government lands for mosques through fake registration,” Rawat said in his letter.

“I demand an inquiry over registration of all land registered by the board. If genuine, none would have a problem but in case there was something amiss then the registration of that land be cancelled and action initiated against those officials who helped in getting such registration done,” Rawat said.

“This is important in light of findings in the Barabanki case,” he said.

In a press note, UP Sunni Waqf Board chairman Zufar Ahmad Faruqi condemned the Barabanki administration’s action.

“It is high-handedness of the local administration, particularly that of the subdivisional magistrate, Ram Sanehi Ghat,” he stated.