Published 16:23 IST, October 1st 2020
P Chidambaram ridicules Babri demolition verdict; makes 'no one killed Jessica analogy'
Congress leader P Chidambaram on Thursday expressed dismay at the special CBI court verdict acquitting all the accused in the Babri mosque demolition case.
Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram on Thursday expressed dismay at the special CBI court verdict acquitting all the accused in the Babri mosque demolition case. He lamented that the culprits responsible for the demolition of the mosque are still roaming free. According to him, the aforesaid judgment was bereft of logic as it went against the findings of the Supreme Court in the Ayodhya land dispute case.
In its judgment dated November 9, 2019, the Constitution bench of the SC described the destruction of the mosque as an "egregious violation" of the rule of law. On Wednesday, the Congress party released an official statement alleging that the BJP-RSS and its leaders had attempted to destroy India's communal harmony to usurp power at any cost. Cautioning against 'pre-meditated prejudice', it called upon the Centre and the Uttar Pradesh government to appeal against the special CBI court verdict.
What is the Babri mosque demolition case?
On December 6, 1992, the Babri mosque in Ayodhya was demolished by 'Kar Sevaks' who claimed that the land on which the religious place was built is the birthplace of Lord Ram. While the trial against unnamed 'Kar Sevaks' was going on in a Lucknow court, a Rae Bareli court was hearing the case in which former Deputy PM LK Advani and other BJP leaders such as Uma Bharti, Murli Manohar Joshi, Vinay Katiyar, Kalyan Singh, Sakshi Maharaj, etc. were named as the accused. In 2001, the trial court dropped the criminal conspiracy charges against them.
While this order was upheld by the Allahabad HC in 2010, the apex court on April 19, 2017, not only restored the criminal conspiracy charges but also clubbed the aforesaid cases of demolition. Moreover, it ordered the completion of the trial within a period of two years. The 32 accused individuals were also alleged to have made assertions "prejudicial to national integration and injuring or defiling a place of worship", indulging in "deliberate and malicious" acts intended to outrage religious feelings, uttering statements leading to public mischief, rioting and unlawful assembly.
On their part, the accused maintained that there is no evidence to prove that they instigated the 'Kar Sevaks' to demolish the mosque. Delivering the 2300-page judgment, special CBI judge SK Yadav ruled that the Babri mosque's demolition was not pre-meditated and that there was no criminal conspiracy. Moreover, he observed that the accused had actually tried to stop the mob. Furthermore, the judge added that the authenticity of audio and video clips produced by CBI could not be proven.
Updated 16:23 IST, October 1st 2020