India apex court issues notice to BJP leader Advani, 19 others in Babri Masjid demolition case

Petitioner alleges the CBI may weaken its stand against the BJP leaders as the party dominates the Centre

India’s top court sought responses on Tuesday from senior Bharitiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders, including L K Advani, on a plea against dropping criminal conspiracy charges against them in the Babri mosque demolition case.

A bench of the Indian Supreme Court issued notices to Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), BJP leader L K Advani and others on a separate plea filed by Haji Mahboob Ahmad, one of the petitioners in the Babri mosque case.

Ahmad, in his plea alleged that the CBI may weaken its stand against the BJP leaders as the party dominates the Centre.

The apex court was hearing the CBI's appeal challenging 2010 Allahabad high court verdict discharging charges of criminal conspiracy in the demolition of the Babri Masjid against LK Advani and 19 other senior leaders of BJP and Hindu outfits.

Read: Babri mosque demolition: Tight security in Ayodhya 20 years after riots

The CBI in its appeal said the verdict discharging Advani and others of the offence of criminal conspiracy "is inconsistent with the previous judgment rendered by the Allahabad high court on February 12, 2001.”

The Lucknow bench of Allahabad high court in its February 12, 2001 order upheld the trial court committed no illegality in taking "cognizance of joint consolidated charge sheet and all the offences were committed in the course of the same transaction to accomplish the conspiracy".

Read: Hindus fear backlash from Babri Mosque verdict

The high court by its said order had noted that the "evidence for all the offences was almost the same.”

As per an investigation carried out by the investigative website Cobrapost in 2014, the demolition of the Babri mosque on December 6, 1992 in Ayodhya was planned and top BJP leaders knew about the plot to knock down the mosque.

Read: Demolition of Babri mosque planned, not a result of mob frenzy, claims Cobrapost

According to the investigation, senior leaders such as L K Advani, the then Uttar Pradesh chief minister Kalyan Singh as well as former Congress prime minister P V Narashimha Rao were aware of the plot.

The mosque was razed in 1992 by Hindu mobs, sparking clashes between Hindus and Muslims in which nearly 2,000 people were killed.

Hindus and Muslims have quarrelled for more than a century over the history of the Babri mosque. Hindus claim that the mosque used to stand on the birthplace of their god-king Rama, and was built after the destruction of a Hindu temple in the 16th century.