After 28 years, 32 accused, including Advani-Murali, acquitted, the court said - CBI could not bring evidence, the structure was dropped by unknown people; Read 10 big things about 2000 pages decision

Posted on 30th Sep 2020 by rohit kumar

The decision finally came 28 years after Babri demolished the disputed structure. In Lucknow, the CBI Special Court judge SK Yadav acquitted all the 32 accused, including LK Advani, Murali Manohar Joshi, and Uma Bharti, who were the prominent faces of the Ram temple movement, while giving a verdict of 2000 pages. In this case, 48 people were charged, out of which 16 have died. The judges who pronounced the judgment are retiring today.

 

10 big things about CBI special court's decision

 

No conspiracy evidence was found in this case.

 

The structure collapse was sudden, the incident was not commissioned.

 

Unknown people dropped the disputed structure. The accused persons had nothing to do with this incident.

 

The CBI failed to produce evidence proving the guilt of 32 accused.

The accounts of the witnesses tell that the intention of the mob gathered for Karseva was not to demolish the Babri structure.

 

Ashok Singhal wanted to preserve the structure because there were idols.

 

The idol of Ramlala was present at the disputed place, so the statue would have been damaged if the kar Sevak had dropped that structure. The kar sevaks were asked to bring water and flowers to keep both hands busy.

 

The things written in newspapers cannot be considered as evidence. Only photographs and videos were presented to the court as evidence.

 

The videos were tempered. They had intermittent news, so they cannot be considered reliable evidence.

 

Photos were introduced in the charge sheet, but most of these were not provided to the negative court. Therefore photos are also not authentic proofs.

 

Now, what next in this case?

 

In this case, a big statement has come from Zafaryab Jilani, convener of Babri Action Committee and member of All India Muslim Personal Law Board. Talking to Dainik Bhaskar, he said that he is not satisfied with the court's decision and will go to the High Court. They will also appeal to the CBI for a re-investigation or trial.

 

Who were the 32 accused?

 

LK Advani, Murali Manohar Joshi, Kalyan Singh, Uma Bharti, Vinay Katiyar, Sadhvi Ritambhara, Mahant Nritya Gopal Das, Dr. Ram Vilas Vedanti, Champat Rai, Mahant Dharmadas, Satish Pradhan, Pawan Kumar Pandey, Lallu Singh, Prakash Sharma, Vijay Bahadur Singh, Santosh Dubey, Gandhi Yadav, Ramji Gupta, Braj Bhushan Sharan Singh, Kamlesh Tripathi, Ramchandra Khatri, Jai Bhagwan Goyal, Om Prakash Pandey, Amarnath Goyal, Jaibhan Singh Powaiya, Sakshi Maharaj, Vinay Kumar Rai, Naveen Bhai Shukla, R.N. Srivastava, Acharya Dharmendra Dev, Sudhir Kumar Kakkar and Dharmendra Singh Gurjar.

 

6 leaders involved in video conferencing

 

LK Advani, Murali Manohar Joshi, Uma Bharti, former Shiv Sena MP Satish Pradhan, Mahant Nritya Gopal Das, and former Chief Minister Kalyan Singh joined the courtroom through video conferencing. Apart from these, all 26 accused were present in the courtroom. The Babri case was the final decision of the tenure of Special Judge SK Yadav. He was scheduled to retire on 30 September 2019, but the Supreme Court extended him service till 30 September 2020 (until the verdict is pronounced).

 

On December 6, 1992, two FIRs were registered at 10-minute intervals.

 

In the first FIR Case No. 197/92, Priyavadan Nath Shukla filed a case under section 395, 397, 332, 337, 338, 295, 297, and 153A against all the unknown people in the case of demolition of Babri Masjid at 5:15 pm.

 

The second FIR case number 198/92 was filed against eight named persons by the outpost in-charge Ganga Prasad Tiwari, including BJP's LK Advani, Uma Bharti, Dr. Murali Manohar Joshi, the then MP, and Bajrang Dal chief Vinay Katiyar, the then VHP. The general secretaries included Ashok Singhal, Sadhvi Ritambhara, Vishnu Hari Dalmia, and Giriraj Kishore. A lawsuit was filed against them under sections 153A, 153B, 505.

 

Later, in January 1993, 47 other cases were filed, including allegations of assault and looting from journalists.

 

Special court made in Lucknow on 1993 High Court order

 

In 1993, a special court was set up in Lucknow on the order of the Allahabad High Court, in which case number 197/92 was to be heard. In this case, Section 120B was added on the advice of the High Court, while this section was not added in the original FIR. In October 1993, CBI also filed a joint charge sheet by adding 198/92 cases to its charge sheet. Because the two cases were connected.

 

48 names like Bal Thackeray, Nritya Gopal Das, Kalyan Singh, Champat Rai were added to the same charge sheet. Azharuddin, the lawyer associated with the case, says that if all the CBI charge sheets are included, there would have been two to two and a half thousand pages of charge sheets.

 

Hearing in different districts of UP government by a mistake

 

When the CBI filed a joint charge sheet in October 1993, the court admitted that the two cases were related to each other. Therefore, the hearing of both the cases will be held in a special court in Lucknow, but other accused including LK Advani challenged it in the High Court.

 

The plea stated that when a special court was set up in Lucknow, case No. 198/92 was not added to the notification. After this, the High Court ordered the CBI to file the charge sheet in Rae Bareli court in case number 198/92.

 

When the court acquitted all the accused

 

In 2003, the CBI filed a charge sheet, but could not add Section 120B of the criminal conspiracy. Since the two cases were separate, the Rae Bareli court acquitted the eight accused because there was not enough evidence against them in the case. In this case, when the other party went to the High Court, the Allahabad High Court canceled the order of Rae Bareli Court in 2005 and ordered that the trial will continue against all the accused.

 

Trial started in 2007, the first testimony

 

Trials in the case then commenced and the first testimony came in 2007. KK Mishra, the lawyer associated with the case, states that a total of 994 witnesses were listed, of which 351 were testimony. There were 57 witnesses in 198/92 case number while 294 witnesses were produced in case number 197/92. Someone died, someone's address was wrong, and no one was found at their address.

 

In June 2017, the Supreme Court ordered the hearing of the case together

 

The CBI went to the Supreme Court in 2011 against the High Court verdict. In his petition, he said to jointly run both the cases in the special court in Lucknow and add a criminal conspiracy case. The trial continued in the Supreme Court. In June 2017, the High Court ruled in favor of the CBI.

 

Not only this, but the Supreme Court also fixed the time limit to end this case in two years. When that deadline was over in April 2019, the deadline of nine months was found again. After this, because of the Corona crisis, time has been given to complete the hearing by 31 August and to give the verdict on 30 September.

 

Liberhan Commission investigation for 17 years, got extension 48 times

 

10 days after 6 December 1992, the Central Government formed the Liberhan Commission, which was to submit its report in three months, but it took 17 years for the Commission's investigation to be completed. According to the information, during this period, the commission got expanded almost 48 times.

 

According to media reports, eight to ten crore rupees were also spent on the commission. On 30 June 2009, the commission submitted its report to the government. Neither the investigation report was used in the case nor the CBI took the statement of any member of the Commission.