UP High Court to hear plea against acquittal of Babri mosque demolition accused

By PTI
LUCKNOW: The Allahabad High Court will hear Wednesday a plea against the acquittal of all 32 accused persons, including BJP veterans L K Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi, in the 1992 demolition of the Babri mosque case.

The petition filed on January 8 by two Ayodhya residents, Haji Mahmood Ahmad and Syed Akhlaq Ahmad, will be heard by a Lucknow bench of the high court.

The petition, filed by two Ayodhya residents with All India Muslim Personal Law Board executive member Zafaryab Jilani as their counsel, was on Tuesday listed for hearing by a bench of Justice Rakesh Srivastava.

While filing the petition last week on behalf of Ayodhya residents Jilani, who had also been the convener of the Babri Masjid Action Committee, had said the court was moved because the CBI has not yet appealed against the last year’s judgment.

The two Ayodhya residents, in their revision petition, have also claimed themselves to be witnesses in the trial against the accused persons.

The Babri mosque was demolished by “kar sewaks” on December 6, 1992.

After a long legal battle, the special CBI court on September 30, 2020, had pronounced the judgment in the criminal trial and acquitted all the accused, including Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Kalyan Singh in 1992.

The trial judge had refused to believe newspaper cuttings, video clips as evidence as their originals copies were not produced in the court and the case rested on these pieces of documentary evidence.

The trial judge had also held that the CBI could not produce any evidence that the accused had a meeting of mind with ‘kar sewaks’, who demolished the structure.

Assailing the trial court’s findings, the petitioners have pleaded that the subordinate court committed error in not convicting the accused persons despite the presence of ample evidence on record.

“The trial judge did not appreciate the evidence of conspiracy in the right perspective,” the petitioners have contended their plea.

The petitioners have also sought that the record from the trial court be summoned, the judgment of September 30, 2002 be set aside and the all the 32 accused be held guilty and punished accordingly.