Accused told to be in court on June 4

LUCKNOW: A special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court 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 after they could not appear in the court on

Thursday because of the Covid-19 lockdown.

“The court has ordered all the accused to appear before it in person on June 4 to record their statements. Due to the lockdown, none of the 32 accused could appear before the court today,” said Manish Tripathi, the lawyer representing Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, BJP MP from Kaiserganj, Uttar Pradesh, 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 on March 24 for recording their statements. But the proceedings did not take place as the court closed due to Covid-19. The court proceedings resumed on May 18.

The Supreme Court had fixed August 31 as the deadline for the CBI court to pronounce its judgment. The CBI has presented all its 351 witnesses before the court.