NEW DELHI, India
After India’s Supreme Court decided to hand over the site of the 16th century Babri Mosque to Hindus to build a temple on Nov. 9, the spotlight has now shifted to a judicial trial on the 1992 demolition of the historic mosque.
After 27 years of derailed investigations, the trial has reached the concluding stages of hearing in a special court in Lucknow, capital of Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, lawyers associated with the case told Anadolu Agency.
After remaining consigned to legal riddles, the case got a fillip only in 2017, when under the apex court directions, the trial court began day to day hearings. So far out of the 1,026 witnesses cited by Central Bureau of Investigations (CBI), nearly 300 have been examined. Around 50 witnesses have passed away. Unable to locate many witnesses, the CBI has pleaded to drop them from the examination.
As many as 49 accused have also died during the proceedings and those still active include some high-profile names of Indian politics, among them former Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani, former Chief Minister Kalyan Singh, some former cabinet ministers, and a few sitting MPs.
“The trial is in its last phase now, a few more witnesses are to be examined, mostly against former Chief Minister Kalyan Singh. We expect completion of trial in the case in the days to come,” said IB Singh, senior advocate, who had argued in defense of several of the accused.
On April 19, 2017, the Supreme Court ordered a lower court to complete the hearing in two years. But the trial court could not meet the deadline. On July 19, 2019, the apex court monitoring the case has directed that a verdict be delivered by April 20, 2020.
Judge SK Yadav, who has been hearing the case for the last four years, was supposed to retire on Sept. 30, 2019. But at his request, the Supreme Court extended his retirement till the completion of trial of this case.
In 1997, a Lucknow court had ordered the framing of charges (including criminal conspiracy) against 48 accused persons. However, 34 of them appealed for amendment in charges and moved the Allahabad High Court, which granted a stay.
Witnesses too old to depose
In 2001, the Allahabad High Court ordered the removal of the charge of criminal conspiracy against Advani, Murali Manohar Joshi, Uma Bharti, Kalyan Singh and others, which weakened the case. For the next 15 years, several review petitions were filed in the courts against the charges, which led to the delay.
However, trial against Advani and others started once again after the apex court on April 19, 2017 revived the criminal conspiracy charge against them. The court restored the charges, 16 years after they were dropped by Allahabad High Court. The leaders are also facing trial for making provocative speeches that incited the volunteers to raze the mosque.
Ram Vilas Vedanti, an accused in the case is quite confident that he along with others will be discharged. “We are looking forward to the construction of a grand Ram Temple at the place which was a disputed site,” he told Anadolu Agency.
Investigating officers said the major reason for the delay was to locate witnesses. “Since 2010, several CBI teams have been working overtime to locate witnesses and present them before the court. Our offices have gone to all corners of the country to serve summons. Some witnesses were even traced in places like the U.K. and Myanmar," said an officer on the condition of anonymity, as he is not authorized to talk to media.
He said that some witnesses are too old to depose now before the court. “Those who were around 50 at the time of the incident are now too old and frail to attend the court proceedings. They cannot recall what happened on the fateful day of Dec. 6, 1992,” he added.
Senior journalist Ramdutt Tripathi, who has been following this case over nearly three decades, said that people are hopeful that the verdict on this case would come soon. “Some of the accused in this case are so frail that they even find difficult to reach the third floor of special court in Lucknow. Prime accused like the Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader Ashok Singhal is already dead,” he said.
Babri Mosque dispute
The Babri Mosque is said to have been built by Mughal Emperor Babur in 1528.
In 1885, a Hindu religious body filed a case in Faizabad court asking for permission to construct a temple to honor Ram on the premises of the Babri Mosque. The permission was denied.
In 1949, a group of Hindus entered the premises of the mosque and installed an idol of Ram. Instead of removing the idol, the administration locked the mosque. However, an official and a Hindu priest were given charge to look after the place.
In 1986, the district administration of Faizabad, under which Ayodhya city comes, opened the premises to Hindus, allowing them to carry out rituals.
The situation remained calm until Dec. 6, 1992, when thousands of activists belonging to extremist Hindu groups and political parties along with BJP leaders entered Babri Mosque and demolished it.
The case over the dispute had been languishing in India’s legal system for years without a final outcome. The Indian Supreme Court finally delivered a judgment Nov. 9 on the ownership and handed over the site to Hindus. The court, however, described the demolition as criminal act.
