One of the five Hindu petitioners in the ongoing Gyanvapi Mosque-related cases has withdrawn from the litigation.
The petitioner was among the five women who had filed a plea in a court in Varanasi to seek rights to pray in the Gyanvapi Mosque compound.
The petitioner, Rakhi Singh, and her family has withdrawn from the Gyanvapi cases because of harassment, according to her uncle Jitendra Singh Visen. Their lawyer Shivam Gaur had also withdrawn from the cases earlier.
Visen said, "I and my family (wife Kiran Singh and niece Rakhi Singh) are withdrawing from all Gyanvapi-related cases that we had filed in the interest of the country and religion in various courts."
Visen is the head of the Vishwa Vedic Sanatan Sangh and is associated with litigation related to various high-profile matters like Gyanvapi mosque, Idgah mosque in Mathura and the Taj Mahal. Other cases filed by Visen include seeking a ban on the entry of Muslims into Gyanvapi premises.
Visen alleged that they were facing harassment from various quarters including from the Hindu litigants and felt humiliated.
He said, "In such a situation, due to limited strength and resources, I cannot fight this battle for 'dharma' anymore and that's why I am leaving this. Perhaps the biggest mistake I made in my life was by starting this 'dharmayudh'. This society is only with those who mislead by playing gimmicks in the name of religion."
Visen's lawyer Gaur, who had left the case earlier, in a separate statement said that due to a communication gap with plaintiffs, he was withdrawing from the Gyanvapi case, which he was contesting from 2021, and Krishna Janmabhoomi case, which he took up in 2022. He said that he did not get any fee after May 2022 for contesting these cases.
Five women plaintiffs, including Visen's niece Rakhi, had filed the original Shringar Gauri suit in August 2021 seeking permission for daily worship of Goddess Shringar Gauri and other deities in the Gyanvapi mosque compound.
However, Rakhi parted ways with the other women and differences appeared between Visen and the lawyers of the four other plaintiffs, including Hari Shankar Jain and Vishnu Shankar Jain, in May 2022.
Visen had then announced his resignation as the national convener and national general secretary in the Hind Samrajya Party run by the Jain duo.
(With PTI inputs)
