The husband of a plaintiff in the Shringar Gauri-Gyanvapi case filed an FIR with Varanasi police, alleging that he had received death threats -“sar tan se juda” (beheading), from a Pakistani phone number twice on March 19 and July 20. Police guards were posted round-the-clock to protect the plaintiff and her family, given the sensitivity of the case. This happened a day before the district judge’s court resumed hearing the case in which five women filed a lawsuit in 2021 pleading permission to offer daily prayers to goddess Shringar Gauri and other deities whose idols are in Varanasi’s Gyanvapi mosque complex.
Sohan Lal Arya, husband of plaintiff Laxmi Devi, said that he has been threatened twice by someone calling from a Pakistani mobile number. “The caller threatened to behead me, referencing Kanhaiya. (Udaipur tailor Kanhaiya Lal Sahu was beheaded for social media posts deemed blasphemous). The caller is pressuring us to withdraw the case,” he alleged.
Police officer Anil Sahu confirmed that an FIR was lodged against unidentified person/s based on Arya’s complaint. Arya said the family initially ignored the calls, but decided to report to police when his wife discovered a missed call while surfing the phone’s call-list. The call was made on August 3 from a Pakistani number. They took up the matter with the police commissioner and district magistrate, and were directed to lodge a police complaint.
