Shiv Sena leader Satish Pradhan surrenders

Lucknow: The path was paved for the trial in the high-profile Ayodhya demolition case to commence after Shiv Sena leader Satish Pradhan on Wednesday surrendered before the special CBI court which later granted him bail on bonds of Rs 20,000 each.
All 28 accused have surrendered in the case and the fresh trial will start once the court frames charges under the Indian Penal Code sections related to criminal conspiracy against the top leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party– Lal Krishna Advani, Dr Murli Manohar Joshi and Union Minister Uma Bharti.
Two other accused former MLA Pawan Pandey and Santosh Dubey, both of Shiv Sena, too accompanied Pradhan in the court. Both Pandey and Dubey had already surrendered before the court and are on bail.
On May 20, five of the accused had surrendered before the court here and were later granted bail by Special Judge Suresh Kumar Yadav. Pradhan was also expected to surrender on Saturday but his counsel sought time from the court till today as he was in Mumbai and unwell.
According to lawyers, after all the 28 accused surrendered, the court will frame fresh charges under Section 120(B) of the IPC against the six accused of the Rae Bareli court and then they will have to surrender afresh. These six accused are senior BJP leader Lal Krishna Advani, Dr Murli Manohar Joshi, Union Minister Uma Bharti, BJP MP Vinay Katiyar, Sadhvi Ritambhara and Vishnu Hari Dalmia. Former UP CM and present Rajasthan Governor Kalyan Singh, too, was among the accused but he had got immunity for his constitutional post. (PTI)