The other Ayodhya case related to the illegal demolition of the Babri Masjid on December 6, 1992, and the criminal conspiracy that led to the demolition, will soon enough have its verdict from a court in Lucknow.
After 27 years of the case that has witnessed many ups and down in its investigation and trial, its hearing in a special CBI court in Lucknow has reached its concluding stages. The case until now has 49 accused, while some of the accused have already died, the list includes many high-profile names of Indian politicians.
A brief history of the criminal case regarding the demolition of Babri Masjid.
Soon after the demolition of the mosque, three different kinds of FIRs were lodged against the illegal demolition and the events that led to the demolition.
The first FIR no. 197/92 was filed against unknown “karsewaks” at 5.15 pm under sections 395, 397, 332, 337,338,295,297, 153A of IPC, and section 7 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act.
The second FIR was registered within ten minutes of teh first one FIR no. 198/92 was registered under sections 153A, 153B, 505 of IPC against LK Advani, Ashok Singhal, Giriraj Kishore, Murli Manohar Joshi, Uma Bharti, Vinay Katiyar, Vishnu Hari Dalmiya and Sadhvi Ritambahra. It was the hate and provocative speech case.
During the following days, as many as Forty-seven other FIRs related to offences of assault on media people, looting valuables like cameras and reporting gadgets from them, etc. All FIRs were filed at Thana Ramjanmaboomi in Ayodhya.
CBI cases
The FIR no. 198 filed against the politicians was transferred to the CB-CID wing of the Uttar Pradesh police, while FIR no. 197 was recommended for a CBI probe. Later, on August 27, 1993, the UP government transferred all remaining 48 cases along with case no. 198 to the CBI.
On 5th October 1993, the CBI filed a consolidated charge sheet against 40 people in all the 49 cases in a special court of Lucknow.
Two years later, the CBI again filed a separate charge sheet against 9 other prominent personalities on January 11, 1996.
Criminal Conspiracy
The CBI’s charge sheet claimed that the demolition was a well-planned attack on the historical Babri Masjid. The charge sheet also included names of top BJP politicians and RSS dignitaries under the accused list. A charge under section 120(b) of criminal conspiracy was added against the accused.
Current Status
The case saw speedy hearing after 2017 with charges framed and trail on the joint charge sheet began.
Trail against Kalyan Singh was stopped as he took over as the governor of Rajasthan. However, soon after his tenure, the trail was restarted.
Over a period of 27 years, many of the accused have died including Bal Thackeray, Ashok Singhal, Giriraj Kishore, and others. The case has heard almost 300 witnesses, while 50 of them have also died.
IB Singh, a senior advocate defending several of the accused said, “The trial is in its last phase now, a few more witnesses are to be examined, mostly against Kalyan Singh. We expect completion of trial in the case in the days to come.”
