After Puja Begins At One Cellar Of Gyanvapi Complex, Varanasi Court To Hear Petition On ASI Survey Of All Cellars On 15 February

As Hindu pujas continue in one of the cellars of the basement of the Gyanvapi complex, a Varanasi court has accepted to hear a petition seeking a survey of all closed cellars by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI).

The petition, which claims there are “secret cellars” inside the basements, is filed by Rakhi Singh who is a founding member of the Vishwa Vedic Sanatan Sangh. The petition will be heard on 15 February.

Singh is also one of the parties in the Maa Shringar Gauri case, which led to the earlier ASI survey of the complex. She asserted in her petition that this survey is necessary to ascertain the religious character of the place.

While lawyers of the Anjuman Intezamiya Mosque committee are objecting to the decision to hear this plea, their similar objection to puja at 'Vyasji ka Tehkhana' was met by Allahabad High Court's refusal to interim stay on it.

The earlier ASI survey report found 55 Hindu deity stone sculptures including 15 “Shiva linga”, three sculptures of “Vishnu”, three of “Ganesha”, two of “Nandi”, two of “Krishna”, and and five of “Hanuman” at the site.

It concluded that a large Hindu temple existed at the Gyanvapi site before the construction of the existing structure. 34 inscriptions of Hindu temple were found and the inscriptions are in Devnagri, Granth, Telugu and Kannada.

After the report, members of a Hindu priest's family have been doing puja five times a day since the Varanasi court's order in a cellar located right in front of Lord Nandi at the Kashi Vishwanath temple complex.