Babri Masjid demolition case in UP: A timeline of important events

Babri Masjid demolition case: Kalyan Singh, the Governor of Rajasthan who enjoys constitutional immunity from being prosecuted, to face trial the day he ceases to be Governor. (Image: Representational/PTI)

New Delhi: On Wednesday, the apex court of the country, Supreme Court revived the conspiracy charge in the 1992 Babri Masjid demolition case against senior BJP leaders L.K. Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Kalyan Singh and Uma Bharti, among others. A bench of Justice Pinaki Chandra Ghose and Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman while restoring the conspiracy charge also transferred their trial from Rae Bareli to Lucknow. Justice Nariman also said that because Kalyan Singh is currently the Governor of Rajasthan and enjoys constitutional immunity from being prosecuted, the trial court would proceed against him the day he ceases to be Governor. The court also said that the trial court in Lucknow would frame additional charges against Advani and others and proceed against them. Babri Masjid demolition case in UP: A timeline of important events In April 1984, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) launched a campaign to gather public support for Hindu access to the Babri Masjid and other structures that had been allegedly built over Hindu shrines. VHP, to raise public awareness, planned nationwide rath yatras (chariot processions), In September–October 1984, the first of which took place, from Sitamarhi to Ayodhya. On 23 October 1985, the campaign was temporarily suspended after the assassination of Indira Gandhi but revived in from 25 places. A 28-year-old local lawyer Umesh Chandra Pandey, on 25 January 1986, appealed to a court to remove the restrictions on Hindu worship in the Babri Masjid premises. The then PM Rajiv Gandhi government, subsequently, ordered the locks on the Babri Masjid gates to be removed and after the ruling, all Hindus were given access to the site and the mosque gained some function as a Hindu temple. In November 1989, communal tension in the region worsened when the VHP received permission to perform a shilanyas (stone-laying ceremony) at the disputed site before the national election. Senior Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader, L K Advani, started a rath yatra, embarking on a 10,000 km journey starting from the south and heading towards Ayodhya. BJP, VHP and RSS leaders, on 6 December 1992, gathered at the site to offer prayers and perform a symbolic kar seva. A teenage Kar Sevak (volunteer), at noon, "vaulted" on to the dome and that signalled the breaking of the outer cordon and soon after a large number of kar sevaks demolished the mosque.