Babri Masjid demolition case verdict: No evidence, all acquitted, says special court

Nearly three years after the Babri Masjid was razed by a mob in Uttar Pradesh, a special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court on Wednesday acquitted all 32 accused citing lack of evidence. The accused in the case included BJP leaders LK Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, former ministers Uma Bharti and Kalyan Singh, among others.

While BJP veterans have skipped the proceedings, Vinay Katiyar, Dharamdas, Vedanti, Lallu Singh, Champat Rai, and Pawan Pandey are among the accused who will be in the court today. While Advani, Joshi, and co-accused Nritya Gopal Das are above 80 years of age Bharti and another accused, Satish Pardhan, are in hospital.

The CBI had filed a chargesheet against 49 people in the case, of whom 17 died during trial. The court recorded statements of 351 prosecution witnesses. The accused were also facing charges of having made assertions “prejudicial to national integration and injuring or defiling a place of worship”.