Badaun (UP): An application claiming presence of Neelkanth Mahadev temple inside the Jama Masjid Shamsi complex has been moved in the court of Civil Judge (Senior Division).
The court of Civil Judge (Senior Division) Vijay Gupta accepted the plea for hearing on Friday and has fixed September 15 as the next date of hearing. The court has issued a notice to the Intezamia Committee of the Jama Masjid Shamsi directing it to present its submissions.
Advocate Arvind Parmar, who has moved the application, said on Saturday Bhagwan Neelkanth Mahadev Maharaj is the first plaintiff in the plaint. Parmar along with the state coordinator of Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha and others have claimed before the court that Jama Masjid Shamsi is actually Neelkanth temple.
Referring to historical facts, the plaintiff has claimed that Jama Masjid is basically the fort of Raja Mahipal and Neelkanth Mahadev temple. The plaintiff has also claimed that it has been referred to in the history books of this mosque as the Neelkanth Mahadev temple.
In addition to these submissions and documents of it being a historical fact while referring to the ‘Information Diary’ published by the Information and Public Relations Department of the state government. Many other facts including information about the history of the kings who invaded the country have been mentioned in the application.
Notably, Badaun’s Jama Masjid is among the biggest mosques in the country. It is the biggest mosque of the seventh century and is counted among the oldest mosques in the country after Jama Masjid at Delhi.
Ved Prakash Sahu, the counsel of the plaintiff, said there is an ancient Neelkanth Mahadev temple in the place where this mosque exists. On the other hand Asrar Ahmad, counsel of the defendant, submitted that there was no existence of a temple and no paper or document related to the existence of the temple has been submitted.
Ahmad filed an objection that the plaint is not worthy of being filed. He said though the court has accepted the application for hearing, it has fixed September 15 as the next date for hearing the submissions of the defendant side.
Ahmad said the mosque was constructed by the third of the Mamluk kings, Shams ud-Din Iltutmish. On the question related to the government gazette on the temple, he said there is no mention of a temple anywhere in the document. He said nowhere it has been mentioned that the mosque was constructed after demolishing a temple.
He said at some places it is mentioned that the mosque had been demolished many times, but nothing like that a temple existed on the site at any point of time has been mentioned or shown in the gazette.
District coordinator of Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha Mukesh Patel claimed that Iltutmish, who was son-in-law of Qutb al-Din Aibak, killed Raja Mahipal and constructed the mosque after demolishing the temple of Neelkanth Mahadev, which was dedicated to Lord Shiva. He said they will put their submission with evidence before the court.
UNI
