The Lord Keshavdev idols, which the Sri Krishna Janmabhoomi Sanrakshit Seva Trust asserts were buried beneath the steps of the Jama Masjid in Agra, are the subject of a lawsuit that the trust has brought before a civil judge in order to "reclaim" them. Manoj Kumar Pandey, the trust's chairman, filed the lawsuit on May 11. The defendants were notified after the court accepted the lawsuit and were instructed to submit their answer by May 31.
The notifications were sent to the chairman of the UP Central Waqf Board, the secretary of Shri Krishna Janmasthan Seva Sansthan, the Chhoti Masjid Diwan-e-Khas, the secretary of the Jahanara Begum Masjid Agra Fort, and the Intazamia Committee of the Shahi Masjid Agra Fort.
The charity is supported by Devkinandan Thakur, a religious speaker from Mathura who recently hosted a "Bhagwat Katha" in Agra. Devkinandan urged that the Lord Keshavdev statues be returned to Hindu hands on the occasion. Manoj Pandey said that he had ample proof that sculptures of Lord Krishna were hidden beneath the stairs of the shrine.
Additionally, he said that he would bring in court the material of a book that was written under Aurangzeb's rule. In a gesture of support, he said, the Trust was prepared to pay for the whole expense of removing the stairs and rebuilding them back together again.
The statue of Keshavdev was buried under the staircase of the mosque Jama Masjid in Agra when Aurangzeb destroyed the Keshavdev temple in 1670, according to Manoj Pandey, The Print reported. The legal team representing the trust is made up of Brajendra Singh Rawat, Vinod Shukla, Krishna Rawat, Dilip Dubey, Nitin Sharma, and others.
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