Panel to probe demolition of Barabanki mosque

Lucknow: The Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh has set up a three-member committee to probe the veracity of documents in the Barabanki mosque case that was razed by the district administration last week.

The state Minority Affairs Department has already lodged an FIR against eight persons for getting the mosque designated as a Waqf property by submitting forged documents in 2019.

The internal committee under the Department, including special secretary Shivakant Dwivedi, has been asked to check documents alleged to be forged in construction of an illegal structure at Ram Sanehi Ghat in Barabanki.

Other members on the committee include two deputy directors of the Department.

The Sunni Waqf Board has said that the structure was over 100-year-old mosque, legally registered with it while the Barabanki district administration had claimed that the “illegal structure was demolished as part of an anti-encroachment drive”.

The Sunni Waqf Board and All-India Muslim Personal Law Board has flayed the demolition and threatened to move court on the issue.