Ex-HC Judge Devendra Kumar Arora to Head Probe Panel into Sambhal Violence, Report Due in Two Months

Punjab: Ex-HC Judge Devendra Kumar Arora to Head Probe Panel into Sambhal Violence, Report Due in Two Months

The Uttar Pradesh government has appointed former Allahabad High Court judge Devendra Kumar Arora to lead a three-member committee investigating the violence in Sambhal. The violence erupted on November 24 during a survey of the Shahi Jama Masjid, resulting in the deaths of four individuals.

Arora will be heading the committee, which also includes former Indian Police Service officers Amit Mohan Prasad and Arvind Kumar Jain. The committee has been tasked with determining whether the violence was premeditated and is expected to file a report within two months.

The violence occurred following a civil court’s ex parte order for a photographic and videographic survey of the Shahi Jama Masjid, claimed to have been built on the site of a Hindu temple. The court had appointed an advocate commissioner for the survey on November 19 without prior notice to the mosque’s management, leading to significant tension and eventual clashes.

The Supreme Court has also intervened in the matter, acknowledging the legal complexities surrounding the Places of Worship Act, 1991, which prohibits changing the religious nature of places of worship as they existed on August 15, 1947, except for the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid dispute in Ayodhya.