If 'antisocial elements' were Babri culprits, why didn't judge call them?: NCP's Memon

NCP leader Majeed Memon asked why the CBI Special Court judge did not ask for the 'anti-social elements' to be produced before him as the Court acquitted all the accused in the Babri Masjid demolition case on Wednesday. 

The Special CBI court in Lucknow on Wednesday acquitted all 32 accused in the Babri mosque demolition case. The order was pronounced by Special CBI judge Surendra Kumar Yadav. While pronouncing the verdict, the judge observed that demolition was not "pre-planned" and happened in the "spur of the moment". The detailed order runs into over 2000 pages.

Taking to Twitter, NCP's Majeed Memon asked why the 'culprits' weren't brought to the Court even after the CBI trial judge had concluded that certain 'anti-social elements' were responsible for the demolition and not the accused named. 

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Majeed Memon asks why 'culprits' were not brought to Court

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CBI court acquits all 32 accused

In its judgment pronounced, the court said that the demolition was not pre-planned. Earlier in the day, 26 of the 32 accused had arrived at the court premises to hear the court's verdict, while six others, including senior BJP leader LK Advani, had taken part in it through video conferencing. There were 49 accused in the case out of which 17 have passed away. Owing to COVID-19, senior citizens and those who are unwell among the accused were exempted from personally appearing in court.

The Babri mosque in Ayodhya was demolished on December 6, 1992. The verdict comes within 10 months of the historic Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid title suit verdict. On November 9, 2019, the Supreme Court awarded the entire disputed area in Ayodhya to the Hindu parties to build Ram temple and an alternative land of 5 acres in Ayodhya to the Sunni Central Waqf Board for the construction of a mosque.

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Two cases that were clubbed by Supreme Court

Two separate cases were filed after the demolition of Babri Masjid in Faizabad. The first was filed by the then SHO, Priyamvada Nath Shukla, against unknown karsevaks. This was under IPC sections 395, 397, 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 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). Section 7 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act was also invoked.

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 and 505.

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