Uttar Pradesh: Ramjanmabhoomi ‘owner’ & Ram Lalla’s fast friend Triloki Nath Pandey no more

AYODHYA: Triloki Nath Pandey, who was bestowed with the ownership of Ramjanmabhoomi by the historic Supreme Court decree of November 9, 2019, by virtue of his stature as ‘Fast Friend of Ram Lalla’ passed away late Friday. He was 75.
A key Hindu litigant in the Ayodhya title suit, Pandey had moved Supreme Court after he was given the sanctum sanctorum (middle part) in a three-way division of the then disputed land by a three-judge bench of Allahabad High Court in August, 2010.Triloki Nath Pandey was the third in the line of ‘Friends of Ram Lalla’ after Devaki Nandan Agarwal and TP Verma.
Pandey was considered as the real liberator of Ramjanmabhoomi for his decades-old legal battle, which finally he won.
He was not high-profile leader of Ram temple movement, but he devoted his entire life to a legal battle for Ramjanmabhoomi. Despite his long association with Vishwa Hindu Parishad, he believed in a harmonious relationship with his Muslim brethren, particularly Muslim lawyers pleading the Babri Masjid case.
Pandey's younger son Amit Pandey, a Delhi-based software engineer, confirmed Pandey's death to TOI. Amit said, his father passed at 8pm at Ram Manohar Lohia Institute of Medical Sciences in Lucknow, where he was hospitalised a fortnight back. His mortal remains will be brought to Ayodhya late night and then his last rites will be performed at his ancestral village in Ballia district.
In an interview to TOI, a month before the Supreme Court’s Ayodhya verdict, he had said, “It was Lord Ram, who inspired us to fight for his rights in court. To represent God is a glorious job and to think I was chosen to do this job from among millions of Hindus made me proud and joyful.”
Iqbal Ansari, Muslim litigant in the Ayodhya title suit, said, “He was a close friend of my father late Hashim Ansari, the oldest litigant of Babri Masjid case. He always visits us on Eid and continued the practice even after the Ayodhya verdict. He strengthened communal harmony in the temple town.”
Talking to TOI, Acharya Satyendra Das, chief priest of Ramjanmabhoomi temple, said, “It’s a big loss to the Hindu community. Pandey ji was a warrior of the Ram Mandir movement and was always confident of victory for the deity.”
Secretary of Ayodhya Mosque Trust, Athar Husain, said, “Pandey was a living example of Ganga Jamuni tehzeeb. He regularly visits Muslim households on Eid to greet them.”