By IANS,
Lucknow : The Allahabad High Court’s bench here Monday ordered the release of three Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leaders Ashok Singhal, Pravin Togadia and Swami Ram Bhadracharya who were arrested ahead of their Ayodhya march.
The court said that if the trio were arrested on fear of breach of public peace, they shall be released.
While Singhal and Ram Bhadracharya were taken into custody Sunday soon after they alighted at Lucknow airport from a plane from Delhi, Togadia was arrested in Golaghat in Ayodhya.
The court passed the order while hearing a habeas corpus petition filed by Ranjana Agnihotri.
The VHP’s “84 kosi parikrama yatra” was banned by the Uttar Pradesh government. The march, proposed Aug 28, 29 and 30, was aimed to press for the construction of a Ram temple in Ayodhya.
The dispute is centred on a plot of land in Ayodhya of Faizabad district in Uttar Pradesh. The issues revolve around access to a site traditionally regarded as the birthplace of the Hindu deity Ram, the history and location of the Babri Mosque at the site, and whether a previous Hindu temple was demolished or modified to create the mosque.
The court Saturday dismissed a public interest litigation against the state government’s decision to ban the march.