LUCKNOW: A few hours after the order of the Varanasi district court, ‘puja’ of deities inside the southern cellar (Vyasji ka Tehkhana) on Gyanvapi mosque premises commenced and continued till 3 am on Thursday morning. The puja, which was performed by the plaintiff Vyas family after a gap of 30 years by lighting the earthen lamps, concluded with a ‘Mangla Aarti’ on early Thursday morning. Following the court order, the Varanasi district administration removed the steel barricades around the southern cellar on the mosque premises letting the Vyas family inside to perform the puja amid tight security arrangements in the presence of senior administrative and police authorities. As per highly-placed sources, late on Wednesday night, senior district administration and police officers reached Kashi Vishwanath Dham, adjacent to the Gyanvapi structure. They got the steel grill around the cellar removed and a pathway leading to the cellar was carved out by through the road in front of Kashi Vishwanath temple. The sources confirmed that the idols of deities recovered from the cellar during the recently-concluded ASI survey and were in the custody of district administration, were kept inside the cellar for the Puja rituals. According to Varanasi Divisional Commissioner Kaushal Raj Sharma, the regular full-fledged puja of the deities inside the cellar would commence in compliance of the district court order from Thursday onwards.
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