Babri verdict: LK Advani, Uma Bharati among all accused acquitted, judge says demolition was not pre-planned
As Judge SK Yadav began reading out the brief of the case, the court observed that evidence against the accused are not strong enough and the Babri Mosque demolition incident was not pre-planned.
FollowLucknow: Special CBI judge Surendra Kumar Yadav delivered his verdict in the Babri Masjid demolition case on Wednesday (September 30), 28 years after the 16th century structure was razed by a mob in Uttar Pradesh’s Ayodhya town.
The key accused are in for a huge relief as they have been given a clean chit and the judge stated that the move of razing the structure was unintentional.
“All accused acquitted, demolition was not pre-planned,” said the judge.
The key accused in the historic case include former deputy prime minister LK Advani, former Union minister MM Joshi, former Union minister Uma Bharti and former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Kalyan Singh.
As Judge SK Yadav began reading out the brief of the case, the court observed that evidence against the accused are not strong enough and the Babri Mosque demolition incident was not pre-planned.
The 32 accused face charges under several sections of the IPC, including criminal conspiracy, rioting, promoting enmity between different groups and unlawful assembly. During the trial, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) produced 351 witnesses and 600 documents as evidence before the CBI court. The court had initially framed charges against 49 accused; 17 accused have died.
“Court found that video was fabricated. Investigative team did not produce negatives of picture. The court said a local intelligence report had cautioned in advance that unexpected sequence of events can take place on December 6 but it was left unattended,” said Advocate KK Misra while speaking to reporters.
Meanwhile, a high alert has been sounded in Uttar Pradesh. While policemen in civil clothes will be on guard in Ayodhya, 2,000 cops will be deployed at the building that houses the "Ayodhya Prakaran Court" in the Old High Court building in Lucknow's Kaiserbagh.
A report in Times of India stated that Rapid Action Force (RAF) personnel have been stationed in 25 sensitive districts.
