Varanasi court to start hearing plea seeking case against Akhilesh, Owaisi from Dec 6

SENIOR ADVOCATE HARISHANKAR PANDEY, FROM VARANASI, HAD FILED THE PLEA IN MAY. THE ACJM-V ON NOV 16 ADMITTED THE PETITION AND FIXED NOV 29 AS THE NEXT DATE OF HEARING.

: Additional chief judicial magistrate-V Ujjwal Upadhyaya will from December 6 start hearing the petition seeking filing of a case against Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav and All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi for allegedly hurting religious sentiments of the people of Kashi by making controversial remarks regarding the Shivling-like structure found in Gyanvapi mosque compound during a court-ordered survey on May 16 this year.

Senior advocate Harishankar Pandey, who hails from Varanasi, had filed the plea on May 23 earlier this year.

The ACJM-V had on November 16 admitted the petition and had fixed November 29 as the next date of hearing.

The Samajwadi Party chief, while speaking to the media in Ayodhya after the Shivling-like structure was found in the Gyanvapi mosque compound, had said, “In our Hinduism, place a stone anywhere, install a red flag there, under a peepal tree, and it becomes a temple.”

After the petitioner’s claim of the finding of a Shivling-like structure in Gyanvapi mosque, the AIMIM chief had said that the structure was not a Shivling but a fountain.

“I am happy that the court found my plea maintainable. It was after 5 months of hard work that the plea was finally admitted in the court,” lawyer Harishankar Pandey had said after his plea was admitted.