Advani to depose on July 24 in Babri case

Uma Bharti calls Pawar ‘Ram drohi’ for ‘anti-temple’ remarks

A special CBI court on Monday set July 24 for recording the statement of former deputy prime minister L.K. Advani in the 1992 Babri mosque demolition case.

The 92-year-old BJP leader’s statement under section 313 of CrPC will be recorded through video conferencing. In his order, Special Judge S.K. Yadav also fixed July 23 for recording the statement of BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi through video conferencing. The court is recording the statements of the 32 accused under Section 313 of CrPC to enable them to plead their innocence, if they so want.

The court, which is conducting day-to-day hearings to complete the trial by August 31 as directed by the Supreme Court, set July 22 for former Shiv Sena MP Satish Pradhan to depose before it through a video link.

On Monday, it recorded the statement of accused Sudhir Kakkad who appeared in person, though earlier he wanted to depose through a video link. The court will record the statement of accused Ram Chandra Khatri on

Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Senior BJP leader Uma Bharti on Monday coined a new term, “Ram drohi”, to pull up Nationalist Congress Party supremo Sharad Pawar for criticising Prime Minister Narendra Modi for choosing to attend the foundation laying ceremony for the construction of the Ram temple

in Ayodhya on August 5 at a time when the Coronavirus pandemic has hit the economy hard.

She said that Pawar was unnecessarily trying to politicise the Ram temple issue, saying, “The PM will hardly take two hours to attend the event. Can the economy of the country be salvaged in two hours?”