Owaisi slams Javadekar over Babri demolition remark: 'Why not proudly confess in court?'

Lashing out at Union Minister Prakash Javadekar's quip on 'Babri Masjid demolition', AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi on Sunday, asked why he did not confess the same in court with just as much pride. Terming it 'shameful', Owaisi pointed that the Supreme Court had said that there was no evidence that a temple was demolished, while calling the demolition of Masjid 'an egregious violation of rule of law'. He added that the CBI court said no evidence of a conspiracy to demolish Babri Masjid, while commenting on Javadekar's witness account of the demolition.

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Owaisi to Javadekar: 'Why not confess it in court?' 

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Javadekar: 'A historic wrong corrected'

Earlier in the day, Javadekar said that he was present at Ayodhya during the Babri Masjid demolition - terming it a 'historical mistake which was corrected'. Addressing a public meeting at Delhi, Javadekar reminisced his days as a 'karsevak', present on site when the three domes of the Babri masjid were brought down, he said that the 'mosque' was just a 'disputed structure'. All 32 leaders accused in the Babri masjid demolition have been acquitted by a CBI trial court.

"I am a witness at Ayodhya on Dec 6 1992, I used to do work of the Yuva Morcha, We were present at Ayodhya as 'karsevaks', I was on the platform. Lakhs of karsevaks slept around the disputed area - a day before. Three domes were seen. The next day the world saw how a historical mistake was corrected," said Javadekar.

Babri demolition: Union Min Javadekar claims 'Historic wrong corrected on Dec 6, 1992'

All 32 accused acquitted

After 28 years, on 30 September 2020, pronouncing the 2000-page verdict, Special CBI judge Surendra Kumar Yadav observed that demolition was not "pre-planned" and happened in the "spur of the moment", acquitting all 32 accused including several BJP veterans  - L.K Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Uma Bharti. The trial judge had refused to accept newspaper clippings and video clips as evidence because the originals were not produced before the court. He also observed that the CBI was unable to produce any evidence that the accused had a mutual assent with the 'kar sevaks’ who demolished the structure. Contending this verdict, two witnesses - Haji Mahboob, 70, and Hafiz Sayyad Akhlaq, 80 have moved the Allahabad High Court seeking that all the 32 accused be held guilty and punished accordingly as there was 'ample evidence'.

On December 6, 1992 a rally had been allegedly organised in the disputed Ram Janmabhoomi area where the 16th century Babri Masjid stood - which attracted 1,50,000 kar sevaks. The rally - allegedly organised by the BJP & VHP - turned violent when kar sevaks attacked security personnel and demolished the mosque. The demolition caused communal riots which caused deaths of thousands. The Supreme Court has already given a unanimous verdict on the Ram Janmabhoomi- Babri Masjid land dispute on November 9, 2019 - awarding the disputed land to the Hindus and a 5-acre land in replacement to the Muslims.

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