Babri case: Vedanti, 4 other VHP leaders surrender, get bail
LUCKNOW: The CBI special court (Ayodhya case) on Saturday granted bail to five VHP leaders in the 1992 Babri Masjid demolition case on personal bond of Rs 20,000 each and a guarantor for every defendant. The VHP leaders had surrendered in the court before applying for bail.
Judge SK Yadav approved the bail applications of Ram Vilas Vedanti (59), Mahant Nritya Gopal Das (79), Mahant Dharamdas (68), Champat Rai Bansal (71) and Baikunth Lal Sharma (88).
Shiv Sena leader Satish Pradhan, who was also expected to appear before the court, could not come from Mumbai due to illhealth and would come on Wednesday.
“All five persons have been granted bail by the court. Satish Pradhan will appear on Wednesday,” said KK Mishra, council of the VHP leaders.
Following directions of the Supreme Court for daily hearing of the case, the judge fixed Monday as the next date of hearing.
“After appearance of Satish Pradhan before the court, date for appearance of LK Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi and Uma Bharti will be fixed,” Mishra added.
The court campus, which has been set-up on the third floor of the Institute of Cooperative and Corporate Management Research and Training, Indira Nagar, resonated with chants of ‘Jai Sri Ram’ when the VHP leaders came out after their bail application was approved.
After getting bail, Vedanti said: “It was I who had instigated the crowd to bring down the (disputed) structure in Ayodhya. Advani ji was the one who was trying to restrain kar sewaks (on December 6, 1992)”.
On the issue of construction of Ram temple in Ayodhya, Vedanti said: “Even Muslims want Ram Mandir in Ayodhya. For ensuring communal harmony in the country, the temple is necessary,” said Vedanti.
The VHP leaders appeared before the special court on a notice by it. Last month, the CBI had challenged before the Supreme Court the Allahabad high court’s decision to uphold the trial court’s discharge order favouring BJP leaders LK Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Uma Bharti and Kalyan Singh, who is at present governor of Rajasthan.
Due to immunity provided by the constitution to governors from legal proceedings, the CBI court did not issue notice to Kalyan Singh to appear before it. Hearing the CBI’s petition on April 19 last, the two-judge bench of the SC of Justice PC Ghose and Justice RS Nariman had also suggested to the CBI to club the two cases pending in Rae Bareli and Lucknow courts, and also directed to conduct the hearing of the case in Lucknow.
It was after the apex court’s order that the CBI had sent summons to all those associated with the demolition of the mosque, including BJP and VHP leaders.