Breaking: All Accused in Babri Masjid Demolition Case Acquitted, Court Observes Demolition Was Not Pre-Planned
(Judicial Quest News Network)
The 28-year-old case of demolition of Babri Masjid in which veteran BJP leaders were accused including LK Advani, former Union Minister MM. Joshi, Uma Bharti and former Utter Pradesh Chief Minister Kalyan Singh were acquitted as the court did not find any evidence of a pre-planned conspiracy to demolish the Babri Masjid Structure on 6 December 1992.
Special CBI Court Judge Surrendra Kumar Yadav has delivered the verdict in the Babri Masjid demolition case today, 28 years after the 16th Century Masjid was razed by a mob in utter Pradesh’s Ayodhya.
The Court has even said that the accused persons were in fact trying to save the Babri Masjid from being demolished and observed that the evidence was tampered with.
The Judgement in the Babri Masjid demolition case is 2,300 pages long, while acquitted all the accused the CBI Court has said the “Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) had no role to play directly or indirectly” in the demolition. The Court observed that “unknown people threw stones from the back”
The date was fixed on the direction of Supreme Court that asked for the Judgment to be delivered by September 30. A day ahead of Verdict, BJP leader Uma Bharti said in a letter to the party president JP Nadda That she would prefer to be hanged rather then seek bail. According to the reliable sources Bharti wrote letter to Nadda on September 26, the day she was dropped from list of the national office-bearers of the party in a dramatic reshuffle. Expressing pride in participation in the Ayodhya Movement Bharti said seeking bail would tarnish the dignity of her role.
A total of 49 people was named as accused in the FIR lodged by CBI, 17 of whom died during the course of trial.
A trial was conducted for the alleged commission of offences under Sections 147(Rioting), 153-A (Promoting enmity between different groups on ground of religion) 153-B(Imputations, assertions, prejudicial to national integration) 295 (Injuring or defiling place of worship)295-A(Deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class),and 505 (Statements conducting to public mischief) IPC read with section149(Unlawful Assembly) and 120-B (Criminal Conspiracy) IPC.
The case was heared on day to day basis, in April 2017, the Court had allowed the Central Bureau of Investigatio (CBI) to frae charges against eight BJP Leaders for criminal conspiracy in the babri masjid Demolition cas. The Court had directed that the trial should conclude within two years, and had also ordered that the judge hearing the case to not be transferred.
In July 2019 the Apex Court had set a time frame within which the trial in the case was to be completed. The Court had said that the judgement in the case ought to be delivered in nine months. The Deadline was later extended to August 31, as the COVID-19 pandemic had hit by then. In the month of August this year the Apex Court further extended the deadline for completion of the trial in the case including the pronouncement of judgement, till September 30.
Pleading innocence, the 92-year-old former Deputy Prime Minister denied his involvement in the alleged conspiracy along with Kar Sevak’s to demolish the disputed Structure of Babri Masjid in Ayodhya on December 6 1992. He pleaded innocent and was unnecessarily dragged I the case owing to the political reasons. The Civil case pertaining to Ayodhya-Babri masjid Dispute attained finality on November 8,2019, when a 5 Judge Bnech directed that the entire disputed land of 2.77 Acres in Ayodhya must be handed over for construction of ram Mandir.
The Top Court had held that an alternate plot of 5 Acres must be allotted to the Sunni Waqf Board for the Construction of Aa Mosque. This direction was passed invoking powers under Article 142 pof the Constitution of India.
