Conspiracy charges against Advani, Uma
BABRI MASJID CASE BJP leaders granted bail, deny charges, claim demolition was spontaneous and not planned
A special CBI court on Tuesday framed criminal conspiracy charges against BJP patriarchs LK Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi and union minister Uma Bharti in the Babri Masjid demolition case, asking them to face trials.
Former BJP MP Vinay Katiyar, Vishwa Hindu Parishad functionary Vishnu Hari Dalmiya and another Hindutva campaigner Sadhvi Rithambara will also be tried under Section 120 (B) of the Indian Penal Code for allegedly entering into a criminal conspiracy to pull down the disputed Mughal-era structure in Ayodhya.
The order comes as a huge blow to Advani, wiping out even remote chances for his possible nomination in the Presidential poll. In 2001, the CBI court had removed the conspiracy charges on technical grounds against Advani but Supreme Court restored the charges last month. The apex court observed that the demolition had shaken “the fabric of the Indian Constitution.”
After being delayed for many years, the CBI court’s directions have virtually started the final leg of the trial. The apex court has ordered the lower court to end the trials in two years.
Appearing before the special court in Lucknow, Advani and the others claimed they did not have anything to do with the demolition. Instead, they claimed, they had tried to stop the kar sevaks. But special CBI judge SK Yadav rejected their appeal.
Six others accused in the sec- ond case – Ramvilas Vedanti, Baikunth Lal Sharma , Champat Rai Bansal, Mahant Nritya Gopaldas, Dharam Das and Satish Pradhan — were also charged with conspiracy and offences such as promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, etc, and defiling a place of worship with intent to insult a religion.
Talking to reporters, Bharati said, “I don’t consider to be an accused. It was not a conspiracy but an open movement like what happened against the Emergency.”
Co-accused Katiyar echoed: “The demolition was spontaneous and there was never any conspiracy.”
The Congress upped it ante against the BJP and demanded that Bharti should step down as she would face trials. “She must step down. We hope that PM Narendra Modi will ask Uma Bharti to step down,” Congress’ chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said.