Officials of the Mangaluru district administration said the VHP activists performed a ‘Maha Gana Yaga’ or ‘Ganapathy Homa’ for a temple to be constructed at the site of the mosque after police denied permission to conduct it near the mosque.
Amid an ongoing case on the controversial Assayed Abdullahi Madani mosque in Malali in a Mangaluru court, Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) activists, who alleged that it was built on a temple, performed a special ‘yagna’ at the Ramanjaneya Bhajana Mandir in the town on Friday.
Officials of the Mangaluru district administration said the VHP activists performed a ‘Maha Gana Yaga’ or ‘Ganapathy Homa’ for a temple to be constructed at the site of the mosque after police denied permission to conduct it near the mosque.

The yagna was also attended by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA from Mangaluru South constituency Bharath Shetty.

On November 9, last year, a civil court in Mangaluru ruled that the suit seeking the appointment of a commissioner to survey the Malali mosque to ascertain whether it was built on a Hindu temple was maintainable.

The original suit was filed by TA Dhananjaya and BA Manoj Kumar from Mangaluru before the third additional civil court.

The petitioners argued that remnants of a structure resembling a temple were found when the Assayed Abdullahi Madani mosque in Malali was being demolished for renovation in April this year. They sought a survey of the mosque in the same case.
However, the mosque authorities said the mosque was a Waqf property, and therefore such a request was not maintainable. They also filed an application challenging the maintainability of such a suit.

The civil court ruled on Wednesday that the suit was maintainable and that it will proceed with the hearing. The court had earlier stayed the renovation work, while the suit was pending.

The court has also extended the temporary injunction on dismantling the old tiled structure that has a temple-like structure.

Talking about how the controversy came to light, a senior official said that earthmovers were deployed at the dargah (mosque) as part of the renovation process.

“During the process, the temple-like structure has come to people’s notice. Some JCB workers have taken a photo of the structure and shared them widely. As soon as the pictures came to light, we have taken notice of the issue,” said the official who didn’t want to be named.
According to the police, photographs of what appears to be a ‘kalasha’ (spire), ‘tomara’ (pillar) and poles resembling a temple were circulated on social media soon after the front portion of the dargah was demolished for renovation work, undertaken by the mosque authority.

Mangaluru police officials said that since the status quo is the place not to carry out any further construction work at the site, police deployments have been provided to prevent any untoward incidents. “The VHP members can hold any event they want in the city, but no permission has been given to go near the mosque that is contested,” he said.