Babri mosque demolition case verdict on Sept 30
A special Indian court will deliver the judgment on September 30 in the Babri Masjid demolition case, ruling whether Bharatiya Janata Party veterans like L K Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi were involved in razing the mosque 28 years ago.
Special Judge S K Yadav in Lucknow, the capital city of India's most populous state Uttar Pradesh, yesterday directed all 32 accused to remain present in the court on the day of the judgment.
The razing of the mosque on December 6, 1992 had triggered riots across India.
The Central Bureau of Investigation, which investigated the case, has produced 351 witnesses and about 600 documents as evidence before the court. Charges were framed against 48 people, but 16 died during the course of the trial. The CBI argued that the accused conspired and instigated the "kar sevaks" to demolish the 15th century mosque.
But the accused pleaded that there is no evidence to prove their guilt and claimed they were falsely implicated in the case by the then Congress-led Indian government as political vendetta.
In a landmark judgment last year, the Indian Supreme Court allotted the disputed site in Ayodhya for the construction of a Ram temple, while calling the demolition of the mosque a violation of the rule of law.
An alternative five-acre site has been found in the city for building a mosque.
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