Varanasi(PTI): The videography survey of the Gyanvapi Masjid complex in Varanasi resumed on Saturday amid tight security arrangements, officials said, and added that the survey work went on in a peaceful manner.
They said that the survey will continue on Sunday.
"The survey work went on in a peaceful manner. And, there has been no objection from anyone. Everything is normal and conducive, and all parties co-operated," Police Commissioner of Varanasi A Satish Ganesh told PTI.
"Today's survey is over, and it will continue tomorrow (Sunday) as well," Ganesh told PTI.
"The authorised persons -- all parties, their advocates, court commissioners and videographers -- have reached the spot, and the survey has started," District Magistrate of Varanasi Kaushal Raj Sharma had earlier told PTI.
The mosque is located close to the iconic Kashi Vishwanath temple and the local court is hearing a plea by a group of women seeking permission for daily prayers before the idols on its outer walls.
An important meeting was held with all parties concerned on Friday, Sharma had said earlier, and added that an appeal was made to them to cooperate in the commission's work and the maintenance of law and order.
More than 1,500 policemen and PAC jawans have been deployed as part of the security arrangement.
The officials said the movement of people has been stopped at a distance of 500 metres from the Gyanvapi complex. Police have also stopped vehicular movement coming from Godaulia and Maidagin areas of the city.
Before entering the Gyanvapi premises, advocate Madan Mohan Yadav, who is appearing for the Hindu side, said all members of the survey team were told to assemble at 7.30 am at the gate number 4 of the Kashi Vishwanath temple complex.
Special lights and cameras were arranged to carry out the survey work, he said. The mosque management committee has indicated that it will cooperate for now with the team assigned the task by a local court.
In his order on Thursday, District Civil Court (Senior Division) judge Ravi Kumar Diwakar had turned down a plea by the mosque committee to replace Ajay Kumar Mishra, who was appointed advocate commissioner by him to survey the Gyanvapi-Gauri Shringar complex.
The judge also appointed two more advocates to help the commissioner with the survey and said it should be completed by Tuesday. The lawyers representing the Hindu and Muslim sides were present at the meeting held on Friday by the district magistrate.
Also on Friday, the Supreme Court refused to grant an interim order of status quo on the survey. The top court, however, agreed to consider listing the plea of a Muslim party against the survey.
The survey was stalled last week amid objections by the mosque committee, which claimed that the advocate commissioner did not have the mandate to film inside the premises. The committee accused him of bias and filed a plea for his replacement.
Advocate Yadav had said the three court-appointed advocate commissioners, five lawyers each from the two sides and an assistant besides a videography team will carry out the survey.
People attended Friday prayers amid tight security outside the mosque.
In its order on Thursday, the district court said locks should be broken if the keys are not available to access certain areas of the complex for the survey.
It also asked the district authorities to register FIRs if the survey was not allowed.
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Alappuzha (Kerala) (PTI): The Congress on Friday sharply reacted to the Income Tax Department's notice to the grand old party to pay a penalty of over Rs 1,750 crore and said the officials were being used as the "gundas" of the ruling BJP.
Addressing the media here, AICC general secretary in-charge of the organisation, K C Venugopal, lashed out at the Narendra Modi-led BJP government and accused it of trying to "financially strangulate" the opposition parties during the election time.
Venugopal said the Modi government was trying to make the Congress party bankrupt.
The Income Tax Department has served a notice to the Congress to pay over Rs 1750 crore, hours after the Delhi High Court had rejected its petitions challenging the tax reassessment proceedings against it.
"Usually, the political parties are exempted from paying taxes. However, this penalty is in the name of delay in filing returns. The Narendra Modi government is doing this with the specific purpose of bankrupting the Congress party at a time when we are facing elections," Venugopal said.
He said a nationwide protest will be held tomorrow and the day after as the BJP was "exploiting" the central agencies to target the opposition parties.
"They are attacking the opposition parties using the government mechanism. This is a move to butcher democracy," Venugopal added.
He also claimed that the BJP too has not paid any returns, but they were safe from IT Department notices.
"Our accounts were freezed earlier and now our funds have been blocked. The BJP regime is exploiting the government machinery to target the main opposition party as they know that they will face a huge setback in the upcoming elections," he said.
Venugopal said as per the notice, the Congress has been asked to pay Rs 1076.35 crore as penalty and Rs 692 crore as interest.
The Delhi High Court on Thursday rejected petitions by the Congress challenging the initiation of tax reassessment proceedings against it for a period of four years by tax authorities.
The High Court said that the pleas were dismissed in terms of its earlier decision refusing to interfere with the opening of reassessment for another period.
The present matter pertained to the assessment years 2017 to 2021.
In the earlier petition, which was dismissed last week, the Congress party had challenged initiation of reassessment proceedings pertaining to the assessment years 2014-15 to 2016-17.
On March 22, the high court, while rejecting those pleas, said that the tax authority had prima facie collated "substantial and concrete" evidence warranting further scrutiny and examination.