All 32 Accused Acquitted In Babri Masjid Demolition Case, Conspiracy Ruled Out

A special CBI court, which heard the Babri Masjid demolition case for the longest time, gave out its verdict on Wednesday saying the demolition was not pre-planned while quashing the conspiracy theories in the December 1992 incident. The CBI court also acquitted all the 32 accused in the case including BJP veteran leaders L K Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Uma Bharathi and others, providing a major relief for them and their party. The Mughal-era mosque was razed to ground by a mob of kar sevaks in December 1992 as part of the Ram Janmabhoomi movement to build a temple on the ruins of the monument.

CBI Judge SK Yadav, while reading out the comprehensive verdict in the case, said there was no conspiracy in the demolition and that there was no evidence to prove that the demolition was pre-planned. The CBI court pronouncing that there is no conspiracy in the case also turns out to be a significant development as it takes the fizz out of the decades-long public discourse and rhetoric that is centered around this very aspect in the case.

The special court, while announcing the verdict on the 28-year-old case involving the demolition of Babri Masjid, ruled out the conspiracy angle. The judge, in his verdict, said that the CBI, as the investigating agency, failed to produce concrete evidence against the accused. The judge also said that the demolition of the monument was spontaneous act and the accused, including L K Advani and others, only tried to stop the kar sevaks from razing the mosque.

The conflict over Ram Janmabhoomi and Babri Masjid continued for a long time and it took a turning point in December 1992, when members of the VHP, the Shiv Sena and the BJP razed the mosque to the ground, sparking national communal riots between Hindus and Muslims in which thousands died.

The Central Bureau of Investigation(CBI) has been investigating the case, and a total of 351 witnesses and nearly 600 documents have been produced by the agency as evidence before the special court.

Charges were framed against 48 people, but 16 had died during the course of the trial. Over two dozen of 32 accused were present.Advani (92), Joshi (86), Bharti (61), Singh (88), Nritya Gopal Das and Satish Pradhan were not present in court.