Advani, others to be tried in Babri case

Apex court accepts CBI plea to restore criminal conspiracy charges against senior BJP leaders; sets daily hearing and a 2year deadline to wrap up case

NEWDELHI: Senior BJP leaders LK Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Uma Bharti and others will be tried for conspiring to bring down the 16th century Babri mosque in Ayodhya 25 years ago, Supreme Court held on Wednesday.

Accepting the plea of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for restoration of criminal charges against these leaders and others, a bench of justice PC Ghose and RF Nariman ordered day-today hearing in the case, and set a two-year deadline for the trial to be completed.

The Supreme Court also shifted the trial from Rae Bareli to Lucknow.

Kalyan Singh, who was UP chief minister in 1992, is governor of Rajasthan and protected by constitution against prosecution. So charges against him would be framed once he ceases to be governor, the court held.

The revival of charges comes 16 years after they were dropped by a Lucknow court on technical grounds. The leaders are already being tried for making inflammatory speeches that provoked the kar sevaks to pull down the mosque. That trial is being held in Rae Bareli.

The Mughal-era mosque in Uttar Pradesh’s Ayodhya was demolished by kar sevaks, or supporters of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), on December 6, 1992, sparking one of the worst communal riots in the country, which left over 3,000 dead.

Many people believe that god Ram was born at the spot where the first Mughal emperor Babur built the mosque.

Two years before the mosque was demolished, Advani crisscrossed the country seeking support for the temple to be built at the disputed site.

The 89-year-old party patriarch, who is now side-lined, is credited with reviving the BJP’s political fortunes.

The CBI’s case against 13 leaders, including Advani, fell flat in May 2001 when the Lucknow court dropped the criminal charges on technical grounds. It said there were two FIRs and the one pending before it under the criminal conspiracy section did not name them. The CBI first appealed in the Allahabad high court, which in May 2010 upheld the lower court’s order, and a year later, the top court.