The Uttar Pradesh government earlier this week demolished an illegal mosque squatting on encroached land in Barabanki, Uttar Pradesh.

The mosque called as the Gareeb Nawaz Masjid and the mosque and its residential buildings was adjoining the tehsil complex and encroaching Tehsil land.

The UP police has lodged a FIR against eight people including the inspector of the Uttar Pradesh Sunni Central Waqf Board for allegedly using fraudulent means to get the mosque that was demolished registered as a Waqf property.

Administration officials stated that the accused fraudulently got the mosque structures squatting in the tehsil premises registered as Waqf property. The officials stated that the government land was claimed as Waqf property without any clearance report from the revenue department.

The All India Muslim Personal Law Board is trying to create an outrage in friendly media by claiming that the mosque was a century old and was demolished against court orders. But the District Magistrate, Barabanki rubbished the spurious claims of the AIPLB and said the demolition was done following court orders for demolishing the illegal mosque.

District Magistrate Adarsh Singh described said, “A notice was served on people concerned on March 15, giving them an opportunity to put forth their views over the ownership but those residing there fled after receiving the notice,” the DM said in a statement.

The DM informed that the tehsil administration got its possession on March 18 and the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court dismissed a petition in this matter on April 2nd, which proved that the construction was illegal.

The DM further said that later complying with the orders of the SDM court of Ram Sanehi Ghat the UP administration demolished the said illegal mosque structure on May 17th. Joint magistrate Divyanshu Patel also termed the construction as illegal and stated that the structure was demolished following court orders.

Notably, Yogi Adityanath government had in March earlier ordered to remove all illegal religious structures in the state built along roads in the state. Over the years thousands of illegal religious structures have cropped up on roadsides which have expanded gradually and resulted in further encroachment of public land.

News input: Indian Today

Image source: Organiser

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