Babri Masjid Demolition Case Verdict On September 30; LK Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi Among 32 Accused

Babri Masjid Demolition Case: The court has already completed all proceedings in the case by recording statements of all the accused and all accused including former deputy prime minister L.K. Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Kalyan Singh and Uma Bharti have been asked to be present

(Photo by MANPREET ROMANA / AFP)

New Delhi: In one of the longest trials in the country, a special CBI court has targeted September 30 to pronounce the judgment in the decades-old Babri Masjid demolition case, which names prominent leaders including former deputy Prime Minister LK Advani, BJP stalwarts Murli Manohar Joshi, Kalyan Singh and Uma Bharti. The above mentioned leaders are among the 32 accused in the case.  The current date for the judgment in the Ayodhya criminal conspiracy case has been set on Wednesday by Surendra Kumar Yadav, judge, special CBI court, Lucknow, as per the news agency ANI. The court has already completed all proceedings in the case by recording statements of all the accused. In fact, Lawyer KK Mishra, who is representing 25 out of the 32 accused in the case, including senior BJP leaders LK Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Kalyan Singh, Uma Bharti, also confirmed the date. When was the judgement expected? The high profile case involving senior politicians of the BJP brass has failed to meet previous deadlines set by the Supreme Court. However, the expected date of judgment slated for September 30 is in line with the one month extension granted by the Supreme Court, instructing the special CBI court to wind up the case by September 30. It is to be noted that the previous deadline for judgment had expired on August 31. In fact, in July last year the SC had extended the deadline for the completion of the criminal trial by six months and a total of nine months for pronouncing the judgment. The deadline expired on April 19 this year and another extension till August 31 was granted by the apex court, as per the Hindustan Times report. Since two trials related to the cases were held separately, on April 19, 2017, the apex court restored the criminal conspiracy charge that falls under IPC 120B against Advani, Joshi and Bharti. In that same order it said both the cases to be clubbed and ordered setting up a Special Court (Ayodhya Prakaran) in Lucknow to conclude the hearing.