Babri Demolition Case: HC dismisses appeal against acquittal of Advani, others

The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court on Wednesday dismissed criminal appeal filed against acquittal of 32 persons, including BJP leaders LK Advani and Uma Bharti, by the Special CBI court in the Babri Masjid demolition case.

A division bench of Justice Ramesh Sinha and Justice Saroj Yadav had completed the hearing on October 31 and reserved the order.

A detailed judgment of the court is awaited.

Ayodhya residents Haji Mahboob and Syed Akhlaq had filed criminal appeal in high court challenging acquittal of 32 accused by the special CBI court in Babri Masjid demolition case.

The plea was filed in 2021 as criminal revision plea.

But when it came up for hearing before the court on July 18, 2022, counsel for appellants submitted before the court that by mistake it was filed as a revision plea instead of a criminal appeal.

CBI lawyer Shiv P Shukla and government advocate Vimal Kumar Srivastava have raised objections regarding the maintainability of the appeal.

They contended that the appellants were not the victims in the case and hence did not have the right to file the present appeal against the acquittal of the accused.

The special CBI court on September 30, 2020, had acquitted all 32 accused, including former deputy prime minister LK Advani, former union minister Murli Manohar Joshi, ex-Rajasthan governor late Kalyan Singh and former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Uma Bharti, in the Babri Masjid demolition case due to lack of conclusive evidence.

Ruling out the criminal conspiracy theory, the court had held that the demolition on December 6, 1992 was a spontaneous act and not pre-planned.

The court had also pointed out that none of the locals of Ayodhya had testified against any of the accused to prove that they incited the mob.