All the 32 accused in the Babri Masjid demolition case, including BJP veterans L K Advani and MM Joshi, were acquitted by the Special CBI court in Lucknow on Wednesday.
While acquitting the all the accused, a judge in Uttar Pradesh said that the 1992 Babri Masjid demolition was not pre-planned. The court said there was no conclusive proof against the accused.
Delivering the much-awaited verdict in the 28-year-old case, CBI judge S K Yadav did not accept newspapers and video cassettes as evidence. The court also observed that late Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Ashok Singhal wanted to save the structure because Ram idols were inside.
The case relates to the razing of the disputed structure in Ayodhya on December 6, 1992, which triggered riots for several months leaving nearly 2,000 people dead across the country. The structure was demolished by 'kar sevaks' who claimed that the mosque in Ayodhya was built on the site of an ancient Ram temple.
The CBI, which went into the case, produced 351 witnesses and 600 documents as evidence before the court. Charges were framed against 48 people, but 16 had died during the course of the trial. Over two dozen of 32 accused were present. Advani (92), Joshi (86), Bharti (61), Singh (88), Nritya Gopal Das and Satish Pradhan were not present in court.
Here's the full list of all the 32 accused in the Babri Masjid demolition case:
1. LK Advani
2. MM Joshi
3. Kalyan Singh
4. Uma Bharti
5. Vinay Katiyar
6. Sakshi Maharaj
7. Sadhvi Rithambara
8. Mahant Nritya Gopal Das
9. Ram Vilas Vendanti
10. Champat Rai
11. Satish Pradhan
12. Dharam Das
13. Brij Bhushan Singh
14. Pawan Kumar Pandey
15. Jai Bhagwan Goyal
16. Lallu Singh
17. Jaibhan Singh Pawaiya
18. Acharya Dharmendra Dev
19. Ramji Gupta
20. Prakash Sharma
21. Dharmendra Singh Gurjar
22. RM Srivastava
23. Satish Pradhan
Kar Sevaks
24. Ram Chandra Khatri
25. Sudhir Kakkar
26. Aman Nath Goyal
27. Santosh Dubey
28. Vinay Kumar Rai
29. Kamlesh Tripathi
30. Gandhi Yadav
31. Vijay Bahadur Singh
32. Naveen Bhai Shukla
