NEW DELHI: In the Maharashtra state of India ruled by Narendra Modi’s BJP, an 800-year-old mosque has been closed following a complaint by an RSS-linked Hindu group, local press said.
It said the mosque in Jalgaon has suddenly become inaccessible to the Muslim community after the district collector passed an interim restraining order while hearing a complaint filed by the right-wing organisation.
In the order, the collector also directed police deployment in the area. He asked the tehsildar to take charge of the mosque, which he described as “disputed”.
The 800-year-old structure is an important place of worship in northern Maharashtra and a property registered under the Waqf Board.
While the collector’s order and his power to pass it have been challenged before the Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court, Aslam, a member of the Jumma Masjid Trust, fears that the unprecedented order marks the beginning of the communalisation of a centuries-old mosque in the state.
The mosque suddenly became a site of controversy because of the complaint filed by an unregistered organisation called “Pandavwada Sangharsh Samiti”.
The complainant, Prasad Madhusudan Dandawate, moved a petition before the Jalgaon district collector Aman Mittal in mid-May.
Mr Dandawate, who is reportedly a member of the RSS and Bajrang Dal, claimed the mosque was built over a Hindu place of worship and should be taken over by the state authorities. The complainant also claims that the Jumma Masjid Trust has “illegally” encroached over the space.
A law passed after the 1992 demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya prohibits damaging or reclaiming old monuments.
The Jumma Masjid Trust members said they were unaware of the claims made until they received a notice in June.
“By then, the collector had already been conducting hearings. In a restricted time, we were asked to defend our case. And on July 11, the collector simply passed a restraining order,” Aslam, one of the ad hoc members of the trust committee, said.
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