Savvy Thakur
Published on: November 10, 2022 at 20:18 IST
A criminal appeal against the Lucknow Special CBI Court’s decision to acquit all 32 individuals (including prominent BJP leaders L K Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Uma Bharati, and Kalyan Singh) of the criminal conspiracy that led to the demolition of the Babri Masjid mosque on December 6, 1992, has been dismissed by the Allahabad High Court.
The bench of Justice Ramesh Sinha and Justice Saroj Yadav dismissed the appeal after reserving the judgment on October 31.
The Case in Brief
Essentially, the plea had been filed challenging the Judgment of Special CBI Judge S K Yadav (delivered on September 30, 2020) holding that the demolition of the mosque was not premeditated and that there was no criminal conspiracy behind it.
The verdict, originally in the Hindi language went on to acquit persons including prominent BJP leaders L K Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Uma Bharati, Kalyan Singh etc.
The appeal was filed by two residents of Ayodhya, Haji Mahmood Ahmad and Syed Akhlaq Ahmad, who claimed to have witnessed the demolition of the disputed structure on December 6, 1992.
According to the court, they cannot be called “Ram-Bhakts”. In the plea, they also said that they were hurt in the incident.
It may be noted that the plea was originally filed in 2021 as a criminal revision plea.
However, on July 18, 2022, when it was scheduled for hearing before a single judge, Senior Advocate Syed Farman Ali Naqvi (on behalf of the revisionist/appellant) informed the court that the plea had been moved as a revision plea and that they should have preferred a criminal appeal.
His additional argument was that, under the powers granted by Section 401(5) CrPC, this court may consider the revision plea to be the revisionists’ appeal.
After hearing the CBI’s Shiv P. Shukla and the respondent-State’s Vimal Kumar Srivastava, the court decided to treat the revision plea as an appeal under Section 372 CrPC.
In light of this argument, the alleged victims appellant number 2 (Syed Akhlaq Ahmad) specifically argued that he is not only a witness to the incident but also a victim because his house and personal belongings were burned during it.
According to their rejoinder,
“The appellants have not only suffered loss of their historical place of worship known as Babri Masjid but have also suffered great financial loss on account of the destruction of their houses which were not only damaged and looted by the offender and their collaborators but their houses were also put on fire and the majority of the belonging of their houses had also been destroyed on account of the arson and loot of their houses.”
Victims also argued that the CBI had investigated the case because it is the best criminal investigation agency.
However, after the accused were found not guilty, the agency opposed the immediate appeal as if it were representing the accused.
According to the claims made by the alleged victims, “The agency has adorned the role of defence on behalf of accused persons, and the victims were left to accomplish the job of prosecution despite being victims having no means and help from any one neither the State nor the Police nor the CBI.”