‘Judicial overreach’: Asaduddin Owaisi rebuts Yogi Adityanath's 'Gyanvapi mosque a historical mistake' jab

UP CM Yogi Adityanath, in a podcast with ANI Editor Smita Prakash, had remarked that the Muslim society should provide a solution for the ‘historical mistake’.

AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi hit out at Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath Thursday over the latter's 'controversial' comment - his first in public - on the Gyanvapi mosque survey case. Owaisi slammed Adityanath's remark as 'judicial overreach'. The UP CM's comment - he told news agency ANI the walls of the mosque at Gyanvapi were 'screaming' - comes less than 72 hours before the Allahabad High Court rules on allowing the Archaeological Survey of India to establish if the mosque was, in fact, built over the remains of a temple.

AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi and UP CM Yogi Adityanath. (R) (File)

"CM Yogi knows that the Muslim side has opposed ASI survey in Allahabad High Court and the judgement will be given in a few days, still he gave such a controversial statement, this is judicial overreach," Owaisi, a Lok Sabha MP and the chief of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen, told news agency ANI.

In comments that have raised eyebrows, Yogi Adityanath also declared Muslims should provide a 'solution' for what he claimed was a 'historical mistake'.

Read: Owaisi shares '2 news’ on Muslims being 'targeted' in Gujarat, UP; posts videos

Adityanath, who is also head priest of the Gorakhnath Mutt in UP's Gorakhpur, proclaimed calling it a mosque would create a 'dispute'.

"What is a trishul (trident) doing inside a mosque? We did not put it there. There is a jyotirlinga, dev pratimas (idols)," the Bharatiya Janata Party leader said.

The High Court on Thursday reserved its decision in this case and said the stay on the survey would continue till August 3, when the ruling will be pronounced.

The court was hearing the plea filed by Anjuman Intezamia Masjid, which manages the mosque.

In 2021, a group of women approached a Varanasi court seeking permission to worship in the Gyanvapi complex, which is situated next to the Kashi Vishwanath temple. The court ordered a video survey, except in the 'wazookhana' where an object - which some claimed to be a shivling - was discovered. The mosque committee, however, said it was part of a fountain to wash hands and feet before prayers.