A special court in Lucknow acquitted all accused in the Babri Masjid demolition case, bringing the chapter to a close after nearly three decades of investigation. The judgment cited a lack of evidence to prosecute the respondents, including L.K. Advani, M.M. Joshi, Uma Bharti and more. The court noted that the "demolition was not pre-planned".
The Babri Masjid was demolished in December 1992 by kar sevaks who claimed that the mosque in Ayodhya was built on the site of an ancient Ram temple. There were two sets of FIRs. One was case number 197/1992 against lakhs of kar sevaks alleging the offences of dacoity, robbery, causing of hurt, injuring/defiling places of worship and promoting enmity. The second, case number 198/1992, was against Advani, Singhal (dead), Katiyar, Uma Bharti, Ritambara, Joshi, Giriraj Kishore (dead) and Vishnu Hari Dalmia for offences under sections 153(A), 153(B) and 505 of the Indian Penal Code.
Eight BJP leaders were then named for instigation: Advani, Joshi, Uma Bharti, Kalyan Singh, Vinay Katiyar, Sakshi Maharaj, Lallu Singh and B.B. Sharan Singh.
Advani, Joshi, Uma Bharti, Kalyan Singh and Mahant Avaidyanath, all accused, were not present in the trial court at the time of delivery of verdict. They attended the hearing through video-conferencing. The Supreme Court had fixed September 30 as the deadline for the trial court to pronounce its judgement in the nearly three-decade old case. The 32 accused then included former deputy prime minister Advani, former Union ministers Joshi and Uma Bharti, former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Kalyan Singh, during whose tenure the structure was pulled down, besides Vinay Katiyar and Sadhvi Rithambara.
The trial lasted for almost 28 years, and came with its share of twists and turns. As THE WEEK reported in 2017: On May 4, 2001, the court had dropped proceedings against 21 persons including Advani, Katiyar, Bharti, Ritambara, Joshi and Kalyan Singh, taking the view that there were two sets of accused, the kar sevaks who actually demolished the mosque, and others who instigated them. The reason: “The court thought that it was faced with two alternatives, and chose the lesser alternative of dropping the proceedings against these 21 persons so that the proceedings against the kar sevaks could carry on.”
This order was challenged in the High Court. On May 22, 2010, the High Court upheld the special court judgment. It agreed with the special court that criminal conspiracy was never made out against the eight accused.
It was against this order of May 2010 that the CBI approached the Supreme Court. Another seven years later, in 2017, a division bench of Justices Pinaki Chandra Ghose and Rohinton Nariman has spoken, in effect asking Advani, Joshi, Bharti and others to face prosecution.
