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Ayodhya Mosque: A Delhi woman has laid claim to a piece of land allocated for the construction of a mosque in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh, claiming that it belongs to her family. The woman, Rani Punjabi, a Delhi resident, said she will move the Supreme Court to get possession of the land, while stressing that she has no objections to a mosque being built there but the state must also do her justice.
Rani claimed that the five acres of land given by the administration to the Sunni Central Waqf Board in Dhannipur village of Ayodhya after the 2019 Supreme Court order in the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid case, is a part of 28.35 acres of land owned by her family.
Talking to news agency PTI, Rani said her father, Gyan Chand Punjabi, move to Faizabad (now Ayodhya district) after he left Punjab on Pakistan side after Partition. She said her father was allotted the 28.35 acre of land in Faizabad in lieu of the land he had to leave behind, and asserted she has all the documents of ownership, adding that the family is mulling to move the Supreme Court.
Rani stated that the family farmed the land until 1983, but later moved to Delhi for her father’s treatment when his health deteriorated. “Since then, the land was progressively encroached upon”, she claimed.
Rani said she has no objection to the construction of the mosque but she wants the administration to do justice to her.
Meanwhile, her claims were refuted by Zafar Farooqui, who heads the Indo-Islamic Cultural Foundation Trust, which has been formed for the construction of the mosque, saying her claims were already rejected by the Allahabad High Court in 2021.
Farooqui, who is also the chairperson of the Sunni Central Waqf Board, said work on the entire project, including the construction of the mosque, will start from October this year.
Notably, Islam forbids building a mosque on any disputed piece of land. However, Farooqui asserted that there is no dispute or obstacle in the project.
“As far as the woman’s claim on the land is concerned, the Allahabad High Court has already rejected it in 2021. There are some minor issues which are being resolved and it is expected that work on the project will start by October,” he said.
Asked about the board’s previous statement that the construction of the mosque and other buildings would start from May this year, Farooqui said, “Yes, there has been some delay because the design of the entire project is being prepared afresh.”
Also, the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA) certificate for raising funds has also not been received yet, he said.
Meanwhile, speaking on the condition of anonymity, a senior official of the project construction committee said he met Rani Punjabi several times over her claim and told her that in Islam it is not permissible to build a mosque on a disputed land. “If she has solid evidence in support of her claim, she should present it, but she could not do so.”
On November 9, 2019, the Supreme Court delivered a historic verdict in the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid case. The apex court cleared the way for building of a grand Ram Mandir in Ayodhya, while giving five acres land to Muslims at a prominent place in Ayodhya for the construction of a mosque.
On the orders of the government, the Sunni Central Waqf Board was allotted the land in Dhannipur village in Raunahi of Ayodhya district.
The Indo-Islamic Cultural Foundation Trust formed for the construction of the mosque has also announced to build a hospital, community kitchen, library and research institute along with the mosque on the given land.
It was expected that the construction of the mosque would be completed along with that of the Ram Temple which was consecrated in January this year, but the construction is yet to begin due to various hurdles such as problems in getting the map approved, lack of funds and other issues.
(With PTI inputs)
