Babri demolition case: 32 accused including Advani, Uma ordered to appear before court on 30th

- The CBI's special court may hear the verdict on September 30

Lucknow, Ta. 16 September 2020, Wednesday

A special CBI court in Lucknow will hear the Babri demolition case on September 30. The court has asked all the 32 main accused in the case to join the hearing on this day. It also includes senior BJP leaders LK Advani, Uma Bharti, Murli Manohar Joshi and Kalyan Singh. Special CBI Judge SK Yadav will hear the case.

The special judge had earlier extended the time limit for completion of hearing of the case by one month to September 30 after seeing the trial status report of August 22. The court had given him till August 31 to complete the trial. The matter was to start writing a decision from September two.

During the hearing, senior advocates Mridal Rakesh, IB Singh and Mahipal Ahuliwalia presented oral arguments on behalf of the accused. Earlier, the court had expressed displeasure that the defense was not filing its own written reply. The special judge told the defense counsel that if they wanted to say something orally, they could do so by September 1, otherwise their chances would be exhausted.

After which CBI advocates Lalit Singh, RK Yadav and P. Chakravarti also gave oral arguments. The CBI has produced 351 witnesses and about 600 documents against the accused during the hearing. The court has to look at the CBI evidence and documents in making the decision. The agency has already filed a 400-page written discussion.

The Babri Masjid was demolished by the Karsevaks in December 1992. He claimed that the mosque in Ayodhya was built on the site of the historic Ram temple of Lord Rama. The court's decision in the Babri demolition case comes 28 years later.