LUCKNOW: Days after a mosque within the Collectorate office in Uttar Pradesh’s Saharanpur was demolished after a court declared the structure 'illegal', two more mosques in western Uttar Pradesh have come under scrutiny.
The Baba Bahauddin Shah Masjid in Sambhal district is being probed by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), while the Mustafa Masjid in Moradabad district has been served a notice seeking details of its construction.
After the Jama Masjid controversy in Sambhal, an inquiry is underway into the construction and land records of Baba Bahauddin Shah Masjid in Chaudhary Sarai.
On Tuesday, an ASI team reached the mosque for an inquiry amid heavy police deployment. According to district administration officials, the inquiry was set up after a complaint was filed by one Subhash Chandra Tyagi, alleging that the mosque was illegally constructed on land belonging to the Jama Masjid.
The official sources said that the ASI team was involved because Sambhal’s Jama Masjid was an ASI-protected monument. However, the team’s findings are awaited, and the mosque’s land records are being examined.
Mustafa Masjid in Moradabad, built on 300-square metres of land, is situated in the Pakbara area. Mosque caretaker Zeeshan Fareed confirmed having received the notice from the Moradabad Development Authority (MDA), asking him to submit documents related to its construction.
The notice, issued last month, followed a complaint alleging that the mosque had been constructed without approved building plans. As per the caretaker, the mosque was built by his late father, Fareed Zabbar, on his own private land around 35 to 40 years ago. He added that his lawyers were taking up the matter with the MDA.
It may be recalled that the mosque in Saharanpur collectorate complex was demolished amid heavy police deployment on Saturday morning. The administrative action followed a September 2 ruling by a local court, which dismissed an appeal by the mosque management committee against the City Magistrate’s July order declaring the masjid unauthorised and ordering its eviction.
The proceedings followed a complaint by Vikas Tyagi, a former Prant Sahyojak of the Bajrang Dal for Western UP. In court, the administration had alleged that the building had originally been constructed as a rest house for visitors within the Collectorate campus but was illegally occupied.