Govt forms three-member inquiry committee

LUCKNOW : A three-member committee set up by the state government will conduct an inquiry in connection with the alleged construction of a structure, which was claimed to be a decades-old mosque by Muslims, on a government land at Barabanki’s Ram Sanehi Ghat tehsil, said senior government officials here on Saturday.

They said the committee will also enquire into forging of documents to get the structure registered with UP Sunni Central Waqf Board as a mosque in June 2019. BL Meena, principal secretary, UP minority welfare and waqf, issued an order in this connection on Friday (May 21).

A senior government official said the committee will be chaired by Shiva Kant Dwivedi, the special secretary of minority welfare and waqf. He said the committee comprised deputy director of minority welfare for Lucknow region and deputy director of minority welfare for Ayodhya division as its members. He said the state government had directed the committee to conduct a detailed enquiry into the matter and submit it report as soon as possible.

The enquiry committee was constituted on the recommendation of district magistrate Barabanki Adarsh Singh. The Barabanki district administration on Thursday midnight had registered an FIR for allegedly forging documents to get a mosque, which was razed in Ram Sanehi Ghat tehsil on May 17, registered as a waqf property.

District minority welfare officer Son Kumar had lodged an FIR with Ram Sanehi Ghat police station accusing the then inspector of UP Sunni Central Waqf Board, Mohd Taha, for registering the mosque as the waqf property without taking the report from revenue officials regarding the ownership of the land. Seven members of the mosque’s managing committee including its president Mushtaq Ali, vice president Waqeel Ahmad, secretary Mushtaqeem Khajin as well as its three members Dastgir, Afzaal and Naseem had also been booked in this connection. The local administration had demolished the mosque while claiming that it was residential encroachment on government land. The controversy erupted over the issue with some Muslim groups alleging that the act was illegal.

Earlier, UP Sunni Central Waqf Board, while claiming that it was a 100-year-old mosque, said it will approach the Allahabad high court demanding restoration of the mosque, a highlevel judicial inquiry and action against the officers concerned. Waqf Board chairman Zufar Ahmad Faruqi had termed the razing of the mosque “the high handedness of the local administration”.