babri case

Babri Masjid Case: Hearing on Plea Against Acquittal of Accused Adjourned

Challenging the trial court verdict which acquitted 32 accused, petitioners have sought the high court to set aside the earlier judgement and convict all the accused.

Lucknow: The Allahabad high court on Wednesday adjourned for two weeks hearing on a plea against the acquittal of all 32 accused, including BJP veterans L. K. Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi, in the Babri mosque demolition case.

The Lucknow bench of the court adjourned the hearing after the petitioners demanded some time to remove certain defects in their case file.

The matter came up before a bench of Justice Rakesh Srivastava.

The petition was filed on January 8 by Ayodhya residents Haji Mahmood Ahmad and Syed Akhlaq Ahmad.

Their counsel is All India Muslim Personal Law Board executive member Zafaryab Jilani, who has also been the convener of the Babri Masjid Action Committee.

While filing the petition, Jilani had said the two Ayodhya residents moved court because the CBI has not yet appealed against the September 30 judgment. The petitioners have claimed that they are witnesses in the trial.

Also read: Babri Masjid: The Timeline of a Demolition

The trial judge had refused to accept newspaper clippings and video clips as evidence because the originals were not produced in court.

He also held that the CBI could not produce any evidence that the accused had a meeting of minds with the kar sevaks who demolished the structure.

The petitioners have pleaded that the CBI court committed an error in not convicting the accused despite the presence of ample evidence on record. The trial judge did not appreciate the evidence of conspiracy in the right perspective, their petition said.

The petitioners have sought that the record from the trial court be summoned, its judgment set aside and all the 32 accused held guilty and punished accordingly.

Former deputy prime minister L. K. Advani, the then Uttar Pradesh chief minister Kalyan Singh, former Union ministers Murli Manohar Joshi and Uma Bharti, and Ram Janmaboomi Teerth Kshetra Trust president Nritya Gopal Das were among those cleared by the lower court.

The Babri mosque was demolished on December 6, 1992, by a mob of kar sevaks who believed that the 16th century structure stood at the birthplace of Lord Ram.

In November 2019, a Supreme Court ruling on the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute paved the way for the construction of the Ram temple at the contested site.

Babri Demolition Trial: Murli Manohar Joshi Deposes, Pleads Innocence

The senior BJP leader accused the then Congress government of falsely implicating him and called the CBI’s witnesses ‘liars’.

Lucknow: Deposing in the Babri Masjid demolition case, veteran BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi on Thursday asserted before a special CBI court that he was innocent and implicated in the case by the then Congress government at the Centre.

The 86-year-old leader made his statement under Section 313 of the Criminal Procedure Code through a video conference to the court of special judge S.K. Yadav, who is holding the trial in the case.

Former deputy prime minister L.K. Advani, 92, is also slated to depose before the Lucknow court through video links from New Delhi on Friday.

In his deposition to the court, Joshi accused the then Central government of falsely implicating him out of political vendetta.

He also refuted the prosecution evidence saying they all were “false and inspired by political reasons”.

The entire investigation was conducted under political influence and he was charged on the basis of false and fabricated evidence, Joshi told the court.

At this, the judge asked him why then the prosecution witnesses have deposed against him and Joshi retorted that all the witnesses are liars. They have deposed due to political reasons and under the influence of police, he claimed.

During the court proceeding, the court posed as many as 1,050 questions to Joshi and he replied to each one of them.

As the judge sought Joshi’s comment over various pieces of evidence led by the CBI on the basis of different video clippings and newspaper cuttings, the former Union human resource development minister said the entire evidence is “false and fabricated”.

During the proceeding, judge Yadav apprised Joshi of the statement of a CBI witness, in which he had averred that Kalyan Singh was sworn in as Uttar Pradesh chief minister on June 25, 1991, and went to the Ram Janmabhoomi site in Ayodhya the next day along with his cabinet colleagues.

Also read: The Political Undertones of Choosing August 5 for Ayodhya Ram Temple ‘Bhoomi Pujan’

The judge told Joshi that, according to the CBI witness, Kalyan Singh had pledged for building the temple at the very place, chanting Ram lalla hum aayenge, mandir yahi banayenge (Lord Ram, we will come and make the temple here itself).

The judge then asked Joshi to explain the statement of the CBI witness.

Joshi replied that it was true that Kalyan Singh had gone to Ayodhya but, he said, the rest of the averment of the prosecution witness was false.

The judge also showed Joshi a photograph taken on June 26, 1991, at the Ram Janmabhoomi premises, in which he is seen standing with the then Uttar Pradesh chief minister Kalyan Singh and asked the BJP leader to explain it.

Joshi dubbed the photograph as fake, pointing out that there was no negative of the photograph on the CBI records.

The photograph was handed over by one Swapna Das Gupta to the CBI during the investigation.

The judge also referred to many newspaper reports on alleged statements of Advani and Shiv Sena’s late chief Bala Saheb Thackeray on the Ram Janmabhoomi issue and sought Joshi’s response to them.

Joshi asserted that the relevant news items were false and were made part of the investigation by the CBI due to political malice and ideological differences.

Joshi told the court that he would present evidence in his defence at the appropriate stage of the trial.

After Joshi completed his deposition to the court, judge Yadav asked his office to send a copy of his statement to the CBI in New Delhi.

The CBI will then get Joshi’s statement signed by him in New Delhi and send it back to the court in Lucknow.

The court recorded Joshi’s statement in the presence of his counsel Vimal Kumar Srivastava, K.K. Mishra and Abhishek Ranjan.

The counsel for prosecution agency CBI, Lalit Singh, R.K. Yadav and P. Chakravarti too were present in the court during its proceeding.

The court is presently at the stage of recording the evidence of various accused, totalling 32, in the Babri mosque demolition trial after examination of the prosecution witnesses.

A photograph of the Babri Masjid from the early 1900s. Copyright: The British Library Board

At this stage of the trial, an accused gets the opportunity to refute the prosecution evidence against him.

The mosque in Ayodhya was demolished on December 6, 1992, by ‘kar sevaks‘ who claimed that an ancient Ram temple existed at the same site.

Advani and Joshi were among the BJP leaders, spearheading the Ram Janmabhoomi temple movement at that time.

The court is conducting a day-to-day hearing in the case to complete its trial by August 31 as directed by the Supreme Court.

BJP leader and former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Uma Bharti had appeared in person earlier this month before the court to make her deposition in the case.

In her testimony, she too had accused the then Congress government at the Centre of implicating her in the case due to political vendetta.

Another senior BJP leader and former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Kalyan Singh too in his deposition to the court on July 13 had accused the then Congress government at the Centre of levelling “false and baseless allegations” against him in the Babri mosque demolition case.

Singh, during whose tenure as UP CM the mosque in Ayodhya was demolished, had said that he was falsely implicated in the case.

SC Dismisses PILs Seeking Preservation of Ramjanmabhoomi Artefacts, Imposes Rs 1 Lakh Fine

A bench of Justices Arun Mishra, B.R. Gavai and Krishan Murari said that the court has already given its verdict in the Ayodhya case and the PIL is an attempt to overreach the judgment.

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday dismissed two ‘frivolous’ PILs seeking preservation of artefacts recovered from the Ram Janmabhoomi site at Ayodhya.

A bench of Justices Arun Mishra, B.R. Gavai and Krishan Murari said that a five-judge bench has already given its verdict and this is an attempt through PIL to overreach the judgment.

The counsel appearing for the petitioners said the Ram Janmabhoomi Trust has also accepted that there are many artefacts in the area that need protection.

The bench sought to know as to why the petitioners have come before the Supreme Court under Article 32 of the Constitution.

“You should stop filing such frivolous petitions. What do you mean by this petition? Are you saying that there is no rule of law and the five-judge bench judgement of this court will not be followed by anyone?” the bench said, adding that it intends to dismiss both the petitions.

Solicitor general Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, said the court should also consider imposing costs.

The bench said that a cost of Rs 1 lakh each is imposed on both the petitioners which should be paid within one month from Monday.

Also read: The Political Undertones of Choosing August 5 for Ayodhya Ram Temple ‘Bhoomi Pujan’

Petitioners Satish Chindhuji Shambharkar and Dr Ambedkar Foundation have moved the top court seeking preservation of artefacts recovered from the disputed site during the court-monitored excavation done during the hearing of the contentious issue at Allahabad high court.

They have also sought to preserve the artefacts which would be recovered after digging the foundation for the new Ram temple at Ayodhya and said that it should be done under the supervision of Archaeological Survey of India (ASI).

On November 9, settling a fractious issue that goes back more than a century, the Supreme Court in a historic verdict backed the construction of a Ram temple by a trust at the disputed site in Ayodhya and ruled that an alternative five-acre plot must be found for a mosque in the Hindu holy town.

Delivering a unanimous judgement on a case that has long polarised the country and frayed the secular tapestry of Indian society, a five-judge bench of the apex court headed by then Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi said the faith of Hindus that Lord Ram was born at the site was undisputed and he is symbolically the owner of the land.

Babri Demolition Case: Advani to Depose on July 24; Murli Manohar Joshi on July 23

The court is recording the statements of the 32 accused under Section 313 of Criminal Procedure Code to enable them to plead their innocence if they so want.

Lucknow: A special CBI court on Monday set July 24 as the date for recording the statement of former deputy prime minister L.K. Advani in the 1992 Babri mosque demolition case.

The 92-year-old BJP leader’s statement under Section 313 of the Code of Criminal Procedure will be recorded through video conferencing.

In his order, Special Judge S.K. Yadav also fixed July 23 for recording the statement of BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi through video conferencing.

The court is recording the statements of the 32 accused under Section 313 of Criminal Procedure Code to enable them to plead their innocence if they so want.

The court, which is conducting day-to-day hearings to complete the trial by August 31, as directed by the Supreme Court, set July 22 for former Shiv Sena MP Satish Pradhan to depose before it through a video link.

Also read: The Political Undertones of Choosing August 5 for Ayodhya Ram Temple ‘Bhoomi Pujan’

On Monday, it recorded the statement of accused Sudhir Kakar who appeared in person, though earlier he wanted to depose through a video link.

Like the other accused, Kakar claimed that he was innocent and was falsely implicated by the then Congress-led central government for political reasons.

The court will record the statement of accused Ram Chandra Khatri on Tuesday.

BJP leader Uma Bharti had earlier this month appeared in person before the court.

She had also accused the then Congress-led central government of framing her due to political vendetta.

The mosque in Ayodhya was demolished on December 6, 1992, by ‘kar sevaks’ who claimed that an ancient Ram temple had stood on the same site. Advani and Joshi were leading the Ram temple movement at that time.

Babri Demolition Case: Uma Bharti Appears Before CBI Court

The 61-year-old BJP leader is the 19th accused to depose before the court in the over 27-year-old case.

Lucknow: Senior BJP leader Uma Bharti Thursday appeared in person before a special court here conducting trial in the 1992 Babri mosque demolition case.

The special CBI court is currently recording the statements of 32 accused under CrPC section 313 (court’s power to examine the accused), a stage in the trial that follows the examination of prosecution witnesses.

The 61-year-old saffron clad BJP leader is the 19th accused to depose before the court in the over 27-year-old case.

Also read: Now That Title Suit Is Resolved, Can We Talk About Babri Masjid Demolition Case?

Thirteen other alleged accused, including former deputy prime minister LK Advani and senior BJP leaders MM Joshi and Kalyan Singh are yet to be examined at this stage.

Their lawyers have indicated to the CBI court that they prefer to appear through video conferencing.

The mosque in Ayodhya was demolished in December 1992 by ‘kar sevaks’ who claimed that an ancient Ram temple had stood on the same site. The CBI court is conducting day-to-day hearings to complete the trial by August 31, as directed by the Supreme Court.