New Delhi: Hearing of the Ram Janambhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute continued on the 18th day in the Supreme Court on Tuesday. Senior advocate Rajeev Dhavan representing Muslim parties told the 5-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi that there was a “planned” and “surreptitious attack” to put idols inside the Babri masjid at Ayodhya on the intervening night of December 22-23, 1949 and some officials connived with Hindus and refused to remove them.
He added that the then Deputy Commissioner of Faizabad K K Nayar did not allow removal of idols despite a specific direction.
PTI quoted Dhavan as saying, “The appearance of idols of deities inside Babri was not a miracle. It was a planned and surreptitious attack to put them on the intervening night of December 22-23, 1949.” The bench also comprises justices S A Bobde, D Y Chandrachud, Ashok Bhushan and S A Nazeer.
The lawyer, representing Sunni Waqf Board said one of the original litigants, M Siddiq knew the “inside story”.
Claiming that documents showed Muslims had been offering prayers on Fridays in the inner courtyard, Dhavan referred to sequence of events to highlight that Hindus planned to install idols and the local administration did not act despite the fact that there was a report in March, 1949 to this effect that something untoward may happen.
Referring to Jerusalem Dhavan said that it can be argued that two religious places were existing, but contending that there was no mosque would amount to telling a lie.