Even as the Gyanvapi case is being heard by the Varanasi district court, a petition for seeking permission for performing puja in another structure in the city was filed recently with petitioners asking for worship at Bindu Madhav temple inside Beni Madhav-ka-Dharahara, alleging that it was destroyed by Mughal emperor Aurangzeb and converted into a mosque. The structure is an ASI-protected monument.
Referring to history books and the ‘Varanasi Gazetteer’, the petitioners have claimed that Bindu Madhav temple of god Vishnu existed at the top of the Panchaganga Ghat along the Ganga. The temple was destroyed by Aurangzeb and a mosque was built there, they claimed.
Raja Anand Jyoti Singh, the lawyer of petitioners Atul Kul, Rahul Mishra, Rajendra Prasad, Shyamji Singh and Ramesh Yadav said, the court of civil judge (junior division) Akash Verma has accepted “our petition by allotting case no. 225/2022 and fixed July 4 as the next date for hearing in this case”.
Advocate Singh said: “The petitioners wish to restore the temple, which was destroyed by the Mughal emperor ”. The petition will be heard on the day when the district judge takes up the Shringar Gauri-Gyanvapi case. Beni Madhav-ka-Dharahara came into focus in 2002, when some residents of Panchaganga Ghat formed the Beni Madhav Darahara Bachao Samiti to stop the alleged misuse of the national monument by members of the minority community. Attempts by right wing activists to hoist the national flag at this monument on Independence Day and Republic Day between 1997 and 2014 were prevented by police.
