Lucknow: Nearly 28 years after the demolition of the Babri masjid in Ayodhya, a special CBI court here on Wednesday acquitted all the 32 people accused of conspiring to raze the structure among other charges, including BJP veterans LK Advani and MM Joshi, on the grounds of absence of any conclusive evidence against them.
The court also observed that late Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Ashok Singhal wanted to save the structure because Ram idols were inside. In his 2,300-page verdict, special CBI judge SK Yadav said the CBI could not produce any conclusive evidence against any accused. He, however, directed all the accused to furnish a surety and personal bond of Rs 50,000 each in the court as a procedural requirement under section 437 (A) of CrPC.
During the course of the trial, the judge did not accept newspaper reports and video cassettes as evidence.
On Wednesday, the judge occupied his chair in the courtroom at 12.10 PM and within five minutes he read out the operative part of the judgment pronouncing acquittal of all the accused. It was his last working day in judicial service. He had already retired on September 30, 2019, but the Supreme Court had extended his service till delivery of the judgment in the case by September 30, 2020.
Reading out the verdict in open court, where 26 of the 32 accused were present along with their lawyers, the judge did not accept newspapers as pieces of evidence as their original copies were not produced and proved. He also did not rely on the photos of the incident as their negatives were not produced.
“The video cassettes were not sealed and even the videos were not clear and as such the same cannot be relied,” he observed.
“Even VHP leader late Ashok Singhal was trying to stop the karsevaks from demolishing the disputed structure because the idol of Lord Ram was also inside the structure,” the judge wrote in his verdict.
When the accused were pronounced innocent, some of them in the court loudly chanted “Jai Shri Ram” in presence of the judge.
Defence counsel Vimal Kumar Srivastava told reporters, “We have been reiterating from the very beginning that there is no evidence in the case and LK Advani, MM Joshi, Kalyan Singh, Uma Bharti and all other accused were falsely implicated by the CBI under influence of the then Congress government at Centre and the today’s verdict is win of justice.”
On whether the premier agency will appeal in the high court, CBI’s lawyer Lalit Singh told mediapersons that the copy of the judgment would be sent to CBI headquarters in Delhi and it would take further decision after perusal of the verdict.
In his verdict, the judge also observed that a local intelligence unit (LIU) report at that time had said there may be some untoward incident, but no inquiry was conducted on the information.
The case related 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 32 accused include former deputy prime minister Advani, former Union ministers Joshi and Uma Bharti, former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Kalyan Singh during whose tenure the structure was pulled down, besides VHP leaders Vinay Katiyar and Sadhvi Rithambara. (PTI)
