Babri Demolition Case: All accused including Advani, Joshi & Bharti acquitted, 28 years on

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.

The 32 accused in the case include senior BJP leaders - Lal Krishna Advani, Murali Manohar Joshi, Uma Bharti, Kalyan Singh, Vinay Katiyar. Out of the 32 accused, 26 were present in the court and others attended the hearing via video conferencing, including Advani. A total 49 people were accused intially in the FIR, 17 other accused have died, and out of them, three high-profile accused were Vishwa Hindu Parishad leaders Giriraj Kishore, Ashok Singhal and Vishnu Hari Dalmia. The proceedings against them have been abated. 

The Babri mosque in Ayodhya was demolished on December 6, 1992 by ‘kar sevaks’. 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.

READ | Babri Masjid Demolition: Supreme Court Extends Verdict Deadline Till Sept 30 For CBI Court

Who are the 32 accused in Babri Mosque demolition case?

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

READ | Special CBI Court To Pronounce Babri Mosque Demolition Case Verdict On September 30