New Delhi: Twenty-eight years after the Babri Masjid was demolished, a special court will on Wednesday pronounce the much-awaited judgement with BJP veterans L K Advani and Murli Manohar among the accused. On September 16, the court had directed all accused to remain present in the court for hearing the judgment.
The accused include former deputy prime minister Advani, former Union ministers Joshi and Uma Bharti, former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Kalyan Singh, besides Vinay Katiyar and Sadhvi Rithambara.The trial under the serious criminal conspiracy charges commenced against them after having been dropped by the trial court in 2001.
The verdict was upheld by the Allahabad High Court in 2010, but the apex court ordered restoration of the conspiracy charge against them on April 19, 2017.The top court ordered daily hearing in the high-profile case and directed the special judge to conclude it in two years.
The charge of conspiracy is in addition to the existing charges against them for promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion for which they are already facing trial. The accused are also facing charges of having made assertions “prejudicial to national integration and injuring or defiling a place of worship”. The CBI argued that the accused conspired and instigated ‘kar sevaks’ to demolish the 16th century mosque.
But the accused pleaded innocence maintaining that there is no evidence to prove their guilt and claimed they were implicated by the then Congress government at the Centre as a political vendetta.
About the case
The mosque in Ayodhya was demolished on December 6, 1992, by ‘Kar Sevaks’ who claimed that an ancient Ram temple stood at the same site.
Former deputy prime minister LK Advani and BJP veteran MM Joshi, who were among those leading the Ram temple movement at that time, had deposed before the court through video conferencing.
Last year, a five-judge Constitution bench of the top court had ruled that the 2.77-acre land claimed by both Hindus and Muslims would be handed over to a trust for the building of a temple. The court had also ordered the allocation of a five-acre land at another site in Ayodhya for building a mosque.
On August 5, Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone of the temple in the temple town in Uttar Pradesh.
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