Ten months after the historic Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid title suit verdict, the Special CBI court today acquitted all 32 accused including BJP leaders LK Advani in the Babri Masjid demolition case.
Reading out the verdict, Judge Surendra Kumar Yadav ruled out criminal conspiracy to bring down the structure and observed it was done on the spur of the moment.
In the 2000-page judgment, Justice Yadav observed that Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi tried to stop the mob from demolishing the structure.
The Babri Masjid in Ayodhya was demolished on 6 December 1992 by kar sevaks.
The eight BJP leaders accused are Advani, Joshi, Uma Bharati, Kalyan Singh, Vinay Katiyar, Sakshi Maharaj, Lallu Singh, BB Sharan Singh.
Advani and Joshi were not present in the courtroom due to age and COVID restrictions, while Uma Bharati has tested positive for COVID 19 and is in AIIMS Rishikesh.
All other accused were present in the court.
Two FIRs were registered for the demolition of the disputed structure in 1992. One was against unknown karsevaks and another was against the eight BJP leaders for instigating the demolition of the disputed structure.
The Supreme Court, in April 2017, had directed CBI to frame charges against eight BJP leaders for criminal conspiracy in the case.
In July 2019, the Apex Court had said that the judgment in the case ought to be delivered in nine months, but the deadline was extended to August 31, due to Covid pandemic.
On August 22 this year, the Supreme Court further extended the deadline for completion of the trial in the case, including the pronouncement of judgment, till September 30.
In November 2019, the Supreme Court had passed Ayodhya verdict allowing Hindu parties to build Bhavya Ram Mandir on the disputed land.
A trust was formed by the central government in February 2020 to build Ram Mandir.
In August 2020, Bhoomi Pujan took place in Ayodhya Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s presence and several leaders, besides saints.
The accused acquitted are: LK Advani, MM Joshi, Uma Bharti, Vinay Katiyar, Kalyan Singh, Sadhvi Rithambara, Satish Pradhan, Ram Vilas Vedanti, Champat Rai, Nritya Gopal Das, Dharam Das, Sakshi Maharaj, Prakash Sharma, Ramchandra Khatri, Amarnath Goel, Dharmendra Singh Gujjar, Santosh Dubey, Lallu Singh, Ramji Gupta, Kamlesh Tripathi, Om Prakash Pandey, Brij Bhushan Charan Singh, Raveendra Nath Srivastava, Naveen Shukla, Vijay Bahadur Singh, Gandhi Yadav, Achraya Dharmendra Dev, Jai Bhagwan Goyal, Sudhir Kakkad, Jai Bhan Singh Pawaiya, Ramji Gupta and Vinay Kumar Rai.
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