In light of the recent developments, The Wire brings you a timeline of events of the 1992 incident and its immediate aftermath.
Credit: PTI
On April 19, the Supreme Court restored criminal conspiracy charges against L.K. Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Uma Bharti and other in the Babri Masjid demolition case. Calling the demolition a “national crime”, the court added that “crimes that shake the secular fabric of the constitution have allegedly been committed almost 25 years ago”.
Advani, Joshi and Bharti have been accused of making inflammatory speeches that fuelled the demolition. The CBI had said that they have evidence that the leaders were part of the plan to bring down the mosque, asking that the Supreme Court allow 14 people, including these leaders, to be put on trial for criminal conspiracy.
In 2010, the Allahabad high court had said criminal conspiracy charges should not be allowed against the leaders. The Babri demolition trial has so far been ongoing in two courts: one in Lucknow (for the karsevaks) and one in Rae Bareli (for the leaders). The Supreme Court’s order today means that the trials will now be merged and held in Lucknow, with court saying that the case must be transferred from Rae Bareli within four weeks.
In light of the recent developments, The Wire brings you a timeline of events of the 1992 incident and its immediate aftermath.
Timeline text: Arshad Afzaal Khan
Timeline: Shreyashi Roy