Seven people were detained briefly for reciting Hanuman Chalisa near a mosque on the premises of a college in Varanasi when their fellow students were offering namaz there, police said on Wednesday.
However, student leader Vivekanand Singh of Uday Pratap College claimed Hanuman Chalisa was recited on Tuesday to protest against "outsiders" gathering at the mosque to offer prayers.
"We have no problem if the students here offer namaaz or worship in the mosque or temple on the college premises. But we do not accept that outsiders are gathering here in the name of offering namaz on the college premises," he said.
Additional Commissioner of Police, Varanasi Cantt area, Vidush Saxena said the students were adamant about reciting Hanuman Chalisa near the mosque in the college premises on Tuesday.
"The police pacified them and sent them back. The police also detained seven students who were released in the evening," he said.
The college's principal D K Singh said a notice was sent to the institute in 2018 claiming the mosque located on the campus was donated to the Waqf Board by the Nawab of Tonk and the land was a Waqf property.
Singh said the notice had come from Wasim Ahmed Khan, a resident of Varanasi.
In reply to the notice the college administration had said that the mosque was built illegally, while the property of the college belongs to the trust and it can neither be bought nor sold.
Deputy Commissioner of Police, Varuna Zone, Chandrakant Meena said that in 2022 construction work in the mosque was stopped on the complaint of the college administration.