A special court in the Indian city of Lucknow ruled that the demolition of the 16th century Babri Mosque in 1992 by Hindu rioters was unplanned, and acquitted the top leaders of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for fault of tests.
The trial court of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), the country’s main investigative agency, announced the verdict in the 28-year-old case involving 32 defendants, including former Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani, 92, a Once a mentor to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The 32 people were charged with criminal conspiracy and inciting a mob to tear down the Mughal-era mosque in the northern city of Ayodhya, located about 135 kilometers (84 miles) east of the state capital, Lucknow, in 1992. Demolition broke out across the country. community violence that left some 2,000 people dead, most of them Muslim.
Other top leaders among those acquitted on Wednesday are former ministers Murli Manohar Joshi, Uma Bharti, Vinay Katiyar and former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Kalyan Singh.
This is a wrong judgment as it is against the evidence and against the law.
In rendering its verdict after a lengthy legal battle, the court said there was insufficient evidence to directly link the defendants to the violence, defense attorney Manish Kumar Tripathi said.
“The court did not accept the evidence, it was not strong enough,” Tripathi told reporters in court.
IB Singh, another defense attorney, said investigators were unable to prove the authenticity of the audio and video evidence presented in the case and the judge held that the case lacked legal evidence that the defendants were part of a conspiracy.
Hardline Hindus attack the wall of the 16th century Babri Mosque with iron bars on December 6, 1992. [File: Douglas E Curran/AFP]
“It is a moment of happiness for all of us, we sing ‘Jai Shri Ram’ [hail Lord Ram] after the judicial verdict ”, Advani was quoted by the local news agency PTI.
Joshi said, “The truth has triumphed.”
Another defendant who was acquitted, Jai Bhagwan Goyal, said: “We had done nothing wrong. All India is happy. The temple of Lord Ram is coming to the city of Ayodhya. “
‘We will seek a remedy’
The four acquitted BJP leaders, Advani, Joshi, Bharti and Singh, have said that the demolition of the mosque was a spontaneous eruption of an angry Hindu crowd.
The court in its verdict said that “anti-social elements” tried to demolish the mosque and that the accused leaders tried to arrest them, the New Delhi Television news channel reported, citing the court order.
The Muslim community will challenge the acquittals in an appeals court.
The court had ignored all the evidence in Wednesday’s case, said Zafaryab Jilani, a lawyer for the All India Muslim Personal Law Board.
“This is a wrong judgment, as it is against the evidence and the law,” Jilani said. “We will seek a remedy,” he told the Reuters news agency.
Last year, India’s Supreme Court awarded Hindus the site of the mosque, which has been hotly contested, and awarded the BJP a victory to further its Hindu nationalist agenda.
On December 6, 1992, tens of thousands of Hindus gathered for a rally near the disputed site, and groups of them climbed the mosque and demolished it with axes and hammers. [File: Robert Nickelsberg/Liaison/Getty Images]
In its ruling last November, the high court ordered that the entire disputed area of 2.77 acres (1.1 hectares) be assigned to the Hindus for the construction of the temple.
The verdict was a defeat for the Muslims, who also claimed the land. The court said that the demolition of the mosque had been a criminal act. He also asked the government to provide five acres (two hectares) of land to Muslims elsewhere to replace the land they had lost.
Last month, Modi inaugurated the construction of the temple, which was one of the promises the BJP had made when it was founded in the 1980s. The party rose to national prominence thanks to the temple movement.
Many Hindus believe that the 16th century mosque, named after the Mughal Emperor Babur, was built on the site where Ram was born in Ayodhya.
On December 6, 1992, tens of thousands of Hindus gathered for a demonstration near the disputed site, and groups of them climbed the mosque and demolished it with axes and hammers.
