The committee that operates Varanasi’s Gyanvapi Masjid has given the Kashi Vishwanath Temple Trust a plot of property outside the mosque complex in exchange for another plot of land nearby.
The mosque had previously given the administration the site on a permanent lease. To build a police control station in the aftermath of the demolition of the Babri Masjid. According to a mosque official, the Trust had requested it several years ago for the temple corridor project in Varanasi.
This plot, which is about 15 meters from the mosque complex, is worth the same as the one it was exchanged for, although it is greater in size.
The mosque was given 1,700 square feet of land in exchange for 1,000 square feet of land.
The site given over is not connected to the mosque and is distinct. “Three parcels of land are owned by the Gyanvapi mosque committee. The mosque is on one of them, while the common path linking the two houses of worship is on the other.
The third property was given to the district administration a year after the Babri mosque was demolished so that a control room could be built to ensure the security of both sites,” Yasin explained.
The former police control room has been removed to make way for the project. According to Yasin, the land, which is controlled by the Uttar Pradesh Central Sunni Waqf Board, was offered on lease for an indefinite term with no payment.
“A few of years ago, the Trust requested that we give this land, and after examining the regulations for such a transfer, we completed it on July 8.”
Sunil Verma, the Trust’s Chief Executive Officer, said the transfer took place between the Trust and the UP Sunni Central Waqf Board. “The land has no bearing on the mosque. We traded this land. It could not be purchased because it is Waqf property, and it was done based on value.
“Until now, the Shri Kashi Vishwanath Special Area Development Board had control of the land given to the mosque,” Verma explained.
The news broke that three months after a local court in Varanasi ordered an ASI survey of the disputed Kashi Vishwanath Temple-Gyanvapi Mosque complex to “determine whether the religious structure currently standing at the disputed site is a superimposition, alteration, or addition, or whether there is any structural overlapping of any kind, with or over any religious structure.”
The order was challenged in the Allahabad High Court by the UP Sunni Central Waqf Board and the mosque committee, who claimed that such litigation was forbidden by the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991. The case is currently before the High Court.
