Amid the Gyanvapi mosque management committee's call to oppose a court's decision to get the religious place and the Shringar Gauri premise videographed and surveyed, a team led by the court commissioner reached Varanasi on Friday to carry out the judicial direction.
Before the arrival of the court commissioner and his team in Varanasi, a large crowd of devotees had gathered for Friday prayers.
Some youths also raised 'Har Har Mahadev' slogan evoking a reaction from some Muslim youths who too raised some religious slogans but the police promptly drove them away.
In the Shringar Gauri worship case, the court of Varanasi‘s civil judge (senior division) Ravi Kumar Diwakar had on April 26 ordered videography of the Shringar Gauri temple in the Kashi Vishwanath-Gyanvapi mosque complex and other places after Eid and before May 10.
To carry out its order, the court had appointed advocate Ajay Kumar as its commissioner.
But the Gyanvapi mosque's management committee had announced to oppose the court order for the videography and survey inside the mosque's premises, scheduled to be held on May 6 and 7.
"No one will be allowed to enter the mosque," SM Yasin, joint secretary of Anjuman Intezamiya Masajid, had said last week.
Around the time the survey was to start on Friday, a woman started offering Namaz at gate number four of Vishwanath Temple, prompting police to whisk her to the police station.
The police later said the woman was identified as Ayesha, a resident of Jaitpura, and is said to be mentally disturbed.
Security on the Gyanvapi campus was beefed up in the early morning itself with heavy barricading in the area to regulate the movement of people in view of the court's order for the videography, scheduled for Friday and Saturday.
SM Yasin said the team has arrived for the survey work.
"Our opposition has been to the videography in the mosque area as it is prohibited and it is also not mentioned in the court order", Yasin added.
The court had earlier ordered videography and survey of the religious place on a plea by Delhi-based Rakhi Singh, Laxmi Devi, Sita Sahu and others demanding permission for daily worship and performing rituals at Shringar Gauri, Lord Ganesha, Lord Hanuman and Nandi located on the outer wall of the Gyanvapi mosque.
They had moved the court with their plea on April 18, 2021.
They had also sought to stop the opponents from causing any damage to the idols.
