Babri Masjid demolition case: Lucknow HC dismisses plea against acquittal of LK Advani, others

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The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court dismissed the petition challenging the acquittal of 32 accused including former deputy prime minister LK Advani in the Babri mosque demolition case.

The High Court on Wednesday dismissed the appeal saying it was not maintainable.

The Lucknow bench of Justice Ramesh Sinha and Justice Saroj Yadav passed the order on an appeal by Haji Mahmood Ahmed and Syed Akhlaq Ahmed, two residents of Ayodhya.

Apart from Advani, other accused in the case included then Chief Minister Kalyan Singh, senior Bharatiya Janata Party leaders Murli Manohar Joshi, Uma Bharti, Vinay Katiyar, Sadhvi Ritambhara and Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, who were challenged to be acquitted.

The court had reserved its order on October 31 and pronounced it on Wednesday.

Pronouncing the verdict, the bench said that their plea was not maintainable.

The bench said, "two appellants could not be treated as victims, therefore they had no locus standing the case. The instant appeal is not maintainable."

The court said these two appellants had challenged the judgement of the special CBI court, Lucknow, which on September 30, 2020, had acquitted LK Advani, Kalyan Singh and the remaining accused in the case.

The CBI court had held that there was nothing on record to establish the existence of a conspiracy to demolish the Babri Masjid.

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On December 6, 1992, the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya was demolished by 'karsewaks'. Following the demolition of the structure, more than 40 cases were registered in Ayodhya. The cases were later clubbed together.

On September 30, 2020, the special CBI court had pronounced the verdict in the criminal trial and acquitted all the accused in the case.

Criticizing the trial court's decision to acquit the accused, the appellants had contended that the trial court had committed a "mistake" by not convicting the accused even though sufficient evidence was on record.

Back in 2019, the Supreme Court directed the Centre to give five acres of suitable land to Sunni Waqf Board and at the same time make necessary arrangements for the construction of the temple by forming a trust.

A five-judge constitution bench presided by Chief Justice Gogoi and comprising Justices SA Bobde, DY Chandrachud, Ashok Bhushan and S Abdul Nazeer passed the order on a bunch of petitions against an order of the Allahabad High Court which trifurcated the site between the parties -- Ramlalla Virajman, Sunni Central Waqf Board and Nirmohi Akhara.

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