Lucknow, June 10
The Sunni Central Waqf Board (SCWB) has moved the high court saying that the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), which is carrying out an excavation at the disputed site in Ayodhya to ascertain whether a temple existed at that place before a mosque was built in the 16th century, has fabricated “evidence” at the disputed site.

In an application, the SCWB counsel Jaffaryab Jilani said the ASI team had selectively removed bricks scattered over the disputed area to give an impression that the bricks were confined to only one portion of the excavated area.

“This selective removal of bricks has led the ASI to claim discovery of squarish or circular pillar bases — an archaeological evidence of the presence of a Hindu temple,” he said.

The ASI had earlier claimed that pillars bases were found during excavation bringing cheers in the pro-temple camps. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) had earlier claimed that the pre-existed temple had 84 pillars out of which 43 had been found.

State president of the BJP Vinay Katiyar even claimed that the archaeologists had found “base of the temple and pillars” during digging. Based on this observation, he even appealed to the Muslims to hand over the disputed site to the Hindus.

Mr Jilani told The Tribune that evidence was fabricated by the ASI.

Archaeologists of the SCWB had a closer look at G-2 and ZF-1 trenches and found that evidences at the base were “tampered with”. Such anomalies were found in 36 trenches also where the ASI had claimed the discovery of pillar bases, said Mr Jilani.

“A close scrutiny has revealed that bricks were selectively removed from few trenches to give an inaccurate visual impression of circular/squarish base structural bases,” the SCWB said.

It is believed that Hindu temples have pillars with circular or squarish base.