Babri Mosque Demolition Case LIVE UPDATES: Advani, Joshi, Uma Bharti & others acquitted

Every Indian, who has innate faith in Constitution, expects Centre, state govt to appeal against special court decision in Babri case: Congress

"Today is a black day. The SC itself said that demolition was egregious, then what does this verdict mean? How can you give such a verdict when we have openly seen that Advani, Uma Bharti, MM Joshi were distributing sweets. What message are you sending? You are telling violence pays. The CBI chargesheet says Kalyan Singh and Advani are conspirators. This judgement satisfies collective consciousness of Hindutva and followers. Who broke the Masjid then?", asked Owaisi addressing a press conference after the verdict. 

"Congress is the key of all this conspiracy. When they were in power , masjid was demolished, idols were placed inside the structure. Congress is at the root of all this conspiracy", he further alleged. 

Babri Masjid demolition case: Zafaryab Jilani of AIMPLB says the remedy of the verdict is in HC. He says the verdict was unexpected. 

Senior BJP leader and former PM LK Advani hails the verdict by the CBI Court in Babri Masjid demolition case. 

The CBI issued its first response after the Special Court accquite all the 32 accused in the Babri Masjid demolition case. The CBI said that it will not make any comment as of now on queries regarding the Babri judgment.

"It is a shocking verdict. The country did not expect such a verdict. It is how the CBI has failed to produce evidence before court. It shows the inefficiency of CBI. We all have seen who were the people behind demolition who mobilised and instigated. This verdict will be challenged", said CPI (M) leader D Raja. 

The CBI Special Court on Wedesday accquited all thge 32 accused in the case over insufficent evidence. Further, the Court ruled that the videos sumbitted by the CBI were tampered with & was not admissable and that senior leaders like Advani & Joshi tried to stop the crowd byt anti-social elements carried out the act of demolition. 

Babri Masjid demolition case: CBI court acquits all 32 accused including LK Advani, MM Joshi, Uma Bharti, Vinay Katiyar and others. Special CBI judge SK Yadav says the demolition was not pre-planned. 

Babri Masjid demolition case: CBI judge SK Yadav says the demolition was not pre-planned. The 2000-page verdict being read out

Babri Masjid demolition case verdict shortly. Security tightened in Lucknow.  It runs into 2000 pages.

The court will pronounce its verdict today, in Babri Masjid demolition case.

Babri Masjid demolition case: Verdict runs into 2000 pages

Babri Masjid demolition case: Those who are not present in the court, they will attend the hearing via video conferencing, says CBI court

Babri Masjid demolition case verduct shortly. CBI court bench assembles. Court asks which all accused are present, attendance beinf taken. Out of 32, 26 accused are present

The court recorded the statement of BJP veteran Murli Manohar Joshi in the case. Dubbing prosecution witnesses in the Babri mosque demolition case as liars , Joshi had asserted that he was innocent and implicated in the case by the then Congress government at the Centre. The 86-year-old leader had pleaded innocence while making his statement under section 313 of the CrPC.
 

BJP leader LK Advani on July 24, 2020, recorded his statement before a special CBI court in the Babri mosque demolition case. The statement of the 92-year-old former deputy prime minster was recorded through video conferencing in the court of special Judge SK Yadav in the presence of his counsel Vimal Kumar Srivastava, KK Mishra and Abhishek Ranjan, who were present in the court. CBI lawyers Lalit Singh, P Chakravarti and RK Yadav were also present.

The court has conducted day-to-day hearing in the case to complete its trial by August 31 as directed by the Supreme Court. But eventually after the request of CBI Court judge, SC extended the August 31 deadline to September 30

Among the 32 accused, 26 accused are present inside the CBI court in Lucknow. LK Advani, Uma Bharti, Nritya Gopal Das, Kalyan Singh , Satish Pradhan not present.

Former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Kalyan Singh had on August 1 in an interview to  news agency ANI, expressed that he is proud of the fact that he refrained from ordering firing on 'kar sewaks' who had assembled around the Babri Masjid in 1992. The BJP leader stated that he had made this decision as it would have caused immediate unrest across the country. 

"In the light of the situation that had developed in Ayodhya, I had then ordered in writing that firing should not be done at the three lakh kar sewaks and other ideas should be used to control them. I had made this decision because if there was firing then several people would have lost their lives. Since people had come from around the country, violence would have caused immense unrest in the state and the country. I am proud that no kar sewak was killed during the time. I have no regrets that the state government fell for the cause of Lord Ram as I have immense faith in him," Kalyan Singh told ANI.

He highlighted, "In 1528, foreign invader Babar's commander Mir Baqi had demolished the Ram temple and made the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya. This was not made for spiritual purposes but to humiliate Hindus. The struggle continued for 500 years and after that, the temple is being made."

1. LK Advani 
2. MM Joshi
3. Uma Bharti
4. Vinay Katiyar
5. Kalyan Singh
6. Sadhvi Rithambara
7. Satish Pradhan 
8. Ram Vilas Vedanti
9. Champat Rai
10. Nritya Gopal Das
11. Dharam Das
12. Sakshi Maharaj
13. Prakash Sharma
14. Ramchandra Khatri
15. Amarnath Goel
16. Dharmendra Singh Gujjar
17. Santosh Dubey
18. Lallu Singh
19. Ramji Gupta 
20. Kamlesh Tripathi
21. Om Prakash PAndey
22. Brij Bhushan Charan Singh
23. Raveendra Nath Srivastava
24. Naveen Shukla
25. Vijay Bahadur Singh 
26. Gandhi Yadav
27. Achraya Dharmendra Dev 
28. Jai Bhagwan Goyal
29. Sudhir Kakkad
30. Jai Bhan Singh Pawaiya
31. Ramji Gupta
32. Vinay Kumar Rai

Sanjay Raut ahead of Babri demolition case said, "SC verdict gave land to Ram Mandir trust, the day when PM did Bhoomi Poojan. If we have done Bhoomi pujan legally, the babri demolition case does not stand."

CBI Court likely to pronounce the verdict of Babri demolition case at 12

Mahant Dharamdas reaches special CBI court in Lucknow

Accused Pawan Pandey reaches court in Lucknow. He says he is ready for the verdict.

Two separate cases were filed after demolition of Babri Masjid in Faizabad. The first was filed by the then SHO, Priyamvada Nath Shukla, against unknown kar sevaks. This was under IPC sections 395 (dacoity), 397 (robbery or dacoity, with attempt to cause death or grievous hurt), 332 (voluntarily causing hurt to deter public servant from duty), 337 (causing hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others), 338 (causing grievous hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others), 295 (injuring or defiling place of worship with intent to insult the religion of any class), 297 (trespassing on burial places, etc) and 153-A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc., and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony). Police also invoked Section 7 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act.

The second FIR was filed by sub-inspector Ganga Prasad Tiwari against VIPs.  Eight leaders were named - LK Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Vinay Katiyar, Uma Bharti, Sadhvi Ritambhara, Ashok Singhal, Giriraj Kishore, Vishnu Hari Dalmia. This was under IPC sections 153-A, 153-B (imputations, assertions prejudicial to national integration) and 505 (statements conducing to public mischief).

Satish Pradhan are not coming for the verdict. CBI court had a week earlier directed all the 32 accused to be present in the court in Lucknow. So far, 6 accused not coming. 

Aggarwal Bandhu, Ramji Gupta, Acharya Dharmendra Dev, Om Prakash Pandey, Champat Rai, Ramji Gupta, Goyal brothers reaches CBI court in Lucknow ahead of crucial verdict

Prashant Singh, Sakshi Maharaj's lawyer says they will go to Upper court. "I think CBI has tried to trap them under political pressure. The case is politically fabricated. If acquitted good enough, otherwise will go to upper court."

Uma Bharti, Murli Joshi, LK Advani, Kalyan Singh, Nritya Gopal Das (Head priest Ram Mandir) not coming

On April 19, 2017, the top court had ordered a day-to-day trial in the high profile case and directed the special judge to conclude it in two years. While dubbing the demolition of the disputed structure as a "crime" which shook the "secular fabric of the Constitution", it had allowed the CBI's plea on restoration of the criminal conspiracy charge against the VVIP accused.

The court had come down heavily on the CBI for the delay of over 25 years in the trial. Issuing a slew of directions, it had said, "The proceedings (against Advani and others) in the court of the Special Judicial Magistrate at Raebareli will stand transferred to the Court of Additional Sessions Judge (Ayodhya Matters) at Lucknow."

"The court of sessions will frame additional charges under Section 120-B (conspiracy) and the other provisions of the penal code mentioned in the joint charge sheet filed by the CBI against Champat Rai Bansal, Satish Pradhan, Dharam Das, Mahant Nritya Gopal Das, Mahamadleshwar Jagdish Muni, Ram Bilas Vadanti, Vaikunth Lal Sharma and Satish Chandra Nagar," the apex court had said. The court had termed the Allahabad High Court's February 12, 2001 verdict of dropping conspiracy charges against Advani and others as "erroneous".

Before the 2017 verdict of the apex court, there were two sets of cases relating to the demolition of the disputed structure on December 6, 1992, going on at Lucknow and Raebareli. The trial of the first case involving unnamed 'Karsevaks' was going on in a Lucknow court, while the second set of cases relating to the eight VVIPs were going on in a Raebareli court. Both the cases was then clubbed. There has been two extensions in the date of the verdict so far. 

Special CBI judge SK Yadav reaches court premises

On November 9, 2019, the Supreme Court pronounced a historic verdict of the decade-long Ram Janmabhoomi Babri Masjid title suit case. The Constitution Bench of the top court awarded the entire disputed area in Ayodhya to the Hindu parties, after a 40-day marathon hearing. It directed the Centre to formulate a Trust within three months which will be responsible for building a temple. On the other hand, the SC ordered that an alternative land of 5 acres in Ayodhya would be given to the Sunni Central Waqf Board for the construction of a mosque. 

Speaking to Republic TV, Iqbal Ansari, the main litigant of Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid title suit, has urged special CBI court to acquit all the accused He said that the Supreme Court has already delivered its verdict on the decades-long dispute, thus proving that there is no dispute. Hence the cases must be quashed, he said. 

“A number of the accused persons in the Babri demolition case are no longer alive and those who are present are very old. I want that the cases should be quashed and the matter should be allowed to end. In any case, after the Supreme Court verdict, there is no dispute left, Hindus and Muslims should live in harmony to help strengthen the social fabric of the country.” Ansari said.

Accused Vinay Katiyar, Dharamdas, Vedanti, Lallu Singh, Champat Rai and Pawan Pandey reach Lucknow

The Special CBI Court in LUcknow will sit at 10AM to declare Babri demolition case verdict. 

A special CBI court in Lucknow is all set to pronounce the verdict of Babri Mosque demolition case today. Special CBI judge SK Yadav had a week ago directed all the accused to remain present in the court when the verdict will be pronounced. The 32 accused in the case include senior BJP leaders - Lal Krishna Advani, Murali Manohar Joshi, Uma Bharti, Kalyan Singh, Vinay Katiyar. Three other high-profile accused - Vishwa Hindu Parishad leaders Giriraj Kishore, Ashok Singhal and Vishnu Hari Dalmia - died during trial and the proceedings against them have been abated. The Babri mosque in Ayodhya was demolished on December 6, 1992 by ‘kar sevaks’. Security has been beefed up in the city ahead of the crucial hearing. It also comes within 10 months of the historic Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid title suit verdict.

On December 6, 1992, a rally had been organised in the then disputed Ram Janmabhoomi area where the Babri Masjid stood - which attracted 1,50,000 karsevaks. The rally - allegedly organised by the BJP & VHP - turned violent when karsevaks attacked security personnel and demolished the mosque. The demolition caused communal riots which caused the deaths of thousands.