The Allahabad High Court on Tuesday converted the revision petition filed against the acquittal of all 32 accused persons, including BJP veterans, in the Babri Mosque demolition case, to criminal appeal.
The Lucknow Single-Bench of Justice Dinesh Kumar Singh said the revision petition filed against former Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani, former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Kalyan Singh, senior BJP leaders – Murli Manohar Joshi, Uma Bharti, Vinay Katiyar, Sadhvi Ritambhara and Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, among others, was not maintainable.
The High Court slated the matter to August 1 for next hearing. Earlier on July 11, the Court had adjourned the matter, on request of the lawyers for revisionists.
The petition, filed by Ayodhya residents – Haji Mahmood Ahmad and Syed Akhlaq Ahmad, contended that they were witnesses in the trial against the accused and the alleged victims, owing to demolition of the disputed structure on December 6, 1992.
The special CBI court had, on September 30, 2020, acquitted all the accused in the criminal trial, stating that the entire edifice of the case rested on pieces of documentary evidence, which were not sufficient to prove the accused guilty.
While refusing to accept newspaper articles and video clips as evidence as the originals of the same were not produced, the trial judge further observed that CBI could not produce any evidence that the accused had a meeting of mind with those ‘who demolished the disputed structure’.