Babri Demolition Case: Special Court Acquits All Accused

Lucknow: In a historic judgement, a Special Court of the CBI here on Wednesday acquitted all the accused in connection with the demolition of the Babri Masjid almost 28 years after the 16th century structure was razed by a mob in Uttar Pradesh’s Ayodhya town.

Reading out the 2,000-page order, CBI judge Surendra Kumar Yadav acquitted all the 32 accused including BJP veterans Lal Krishna Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Kalyan Singh, Uma Bharti, Satish Pradhan and Mahant Nritya Gopal Das in the.

Mr Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Uma Bharti and Kalyan Singh were not present in court during the hearing but joined via video conference.

The Special CBI Court observed that the 1992 demolition was not pre-planned.

The Supreme Court had extended the deadline for the trial court to complete the trial several times, with the last extension given on August 19, 2020.

In 2017, the country's apex court had restored conspiracy charges against the accused.

It is being said that the case has lost much its steam after the Supreme Court, on November 9, 2019, allowed construction of Ram temple at the disputed site where the mosque once stood in Ayodhya, settling the land dispute.

Majority of the accused leaders in the demolition case have already pleaded innocence and blamed the then Congress government for falsely implicating them in the case due to political reasons.

It may be recalled that exactly 10 years ago, on September 30, 2010 -- a three-judge bench of the Allahabad High Court had delivered the verdict in the Ayodhya title suit, which was later challenged in Supreme Court.

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