Gyanvapi Petitioner's Euthanasia Request To President, Cites Harassment

A petitioner in the Varanasi Gyanvapi Mosque case has written to the President of India requesting euthanasia, days after announcing her withdrawal from the case, in what appears to be the result of a dispute between the litigants.

Rakhi Singh, one of the five women petitioners who approached a court in Uttar Pradesh requesting that Hindu prayers and rituals be allowed in the mosque complex, wrote in her letter that she would wait for President Droupadi Murmu's response till 9 am on June 9 (Friday). After that, she claimed, she would take her own decision.

The letter detailed what she called harassment and persecution by her fellow petitioners.

Rakhi Singh is a relative of Jitendra Singh Visen, one of the main Hindu petitioners in the case, who announced on Saturday that he and his family were withdrawing from all cases related to the Gyanvapi dispute due to alleged "harassment".

"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, who heads the Vishwa Vedic Sanatan Sangh, said in a statement.

Calling the case his "biggest mistake", he alleged harassment from various quarters, including from Hindu petitioners.

"In such a situation, due to limited strength and resources, I cannot fight this battle for 'dharma' anymore and that's why I am quitting this... This society is only with those who mislead by playing gimmicks in the name of religion," he said.

Rakhi Singh and four other women petitioners had filed the original lawsuit in August 2021 seeking permission to worship Hindu idols they claimed are in the Gyanvapi mosque complex.

However, differences have emerged between the petitioners.

A pre-existing legal order has allowed hundreds of Hindu women to symbolically worship the goddess Shringar Gauri once a year in the complex.

Last month, the Allahabad High Court dismissed a request by the mosque committee to scrap the Hindu petitioners' case.