Babri case: CBI court asks all accused to appear on June 4
LUCKNOW : A special CBI court (Ayodhya case) on Thursday ordered all 32 accused in the Babri Mosque demolition criminal conspiracy case, including veteran BJP leaders LK Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Uma Bharti and Kalyan Singh, to appear before it on June 4. Special judge Surendra Kumar Yadav issued the order to this effect.
“The court has ordered all the accused to appear before it in person on June 4 to record their statements. Due to the ongoing lockdown, none of the 32 accused could appear before the court today [Thursday],” said Manish Tripathi, the lawyer representing Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, the BJP MP from Kaiserganj.
LUCKNOW: A special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court (Ayodhya case) on Thursday ordered all 32 accused in the Babri Mosque demolition criminal conspiracy case, including veteran Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders LK Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Uma Bharti and Kalyan Singh, to appear before it on June 4. Special judge Surendra Kumar Yadav issued the order to this effect.
“The court has ordered all the accused to appear before it in person on June 4 to record their statements. Due to the ongoing nationwide lockdown, none of the 32 accused could appear before the court today [Thursday],” said Manish Tripathi, the lawyer representing Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, the BJP MP from Kaiserganj in Uttar Pradesh.Tripathi is
also representing Shiv Sena leader Satish Pradhan and former Shiv Sena leader Pawan Pandey. The court will record statements of the accused under section 313 of the Code of Criminal Procedure and give them a chance to claim innocence.
The prosecution had wrapped up the examination of witnesses by March 6 and the court asked some of the accused to appear before it on March 24 for recording their statements. But the proceedings did not take place as the court closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The court proceedings resumed on May 18. The Supreme Court on May 8 fixed August 31 as the deadline for the CBI court to pronounce its judgment in the case. The CBI, which has investigated the case, has presented all its 351 witnesses before the special court.After demolition of the Babri Masjid on December 6, 1992, special courts were set up in Rae Bareli and Lucknow for the trial of the related cases.
The first case involving unnamed ‘kar sevaks’ proceeded in a Lucknow court and the second set of cases relating to prominent people was heard in a Rae Bareli court.The Supreme Court in April 2017 transferred the proceedings from the Rae Bareli court to a special CBI court in Lucknow.
The Supreme Court on July 19, 2019, extended by six months the time frame for completing the criminal trial in the case and set a nine-month deadline for the final order. The deadline expired on April 19 and the special judge wrote to the apex court on May 6, seeking an extension.
Vishva Hindu Parishad leader Champat Rai and Mahant Nritya Gopal Das are among the accused in the case.
Das is chairman of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerath Kshetra Trust, constituted by the Centre on the Supreme Court directives for construction of a Ram temple in Ayodhya, and Rai its general secretary.