Ayodhya,Sep 28 (UNI) Two months after the mega Ram Temple foundation laying ceremony, it’s now time for judgment in a related case of Babri Mosque demolition on Wednesday. Twenty-eight years after Ram Bhakts demolished the mosque on December 6, 1992, the CBI special court in Lucknow will pronounce its judgment on September 30 in presence of all the 32 accused including former deputy PM Lal Krishna Advani, former Union Ministers Dr Murli Manohar Joshi, Uma Bharati and ex UP CM Kalyan Singh.
Surprisingly , the verdict on the conspiracy over demolition of the Babri mosque will be delivered on the same day, when the title verdict by a three judge bench of the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court was delivered exactly 10 years back.
Special judge S K Yadav will deliver his judgement in the morning hours on Wednesday and that could be his last day of his judicial career as judge as he is on extension till the verdict is pronounced.
The piece of land in Ayodhya, where once stood the Babri Masjid, is now abuzz with movement of big cranes and drilling machines. Construction of Grand Ram Mandir has begun, after Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the first foundation stone for the temple in a historic Bhoomi Pujan event on August 5.
However, unlike the title dispute case in the matter that saw final judgment being delivered by the Supreme Court on November 9,2019, the demolition case still can have a long way to go. After almost three decades it’s the first court in our legal system that is set to give the verdict. Deepening upon the ruling, parties concerned will clearly have a right to challenge the verdict in the higher courts of the country.
Now the awaited judgment from the trial court holds a lot of significance. The case in its legal history has seen lots of ups and downs, delays and then day to day hearings. Pace of trial and investigating agency, that is the CBI’s moves often got influenced by the governments of the day.
Despite the delay, it has been an exhausting trial in which more than 350 witnesses recorded their statements and CBI filled a consolidated charge sheet in 49 related cases. The case that initially had 49 accused, now has only 32 of them alive.
After 28 years of often-derailed investigations and trial, the matter saw completion of trial earlier this month.
The CBI special court in Lucknow has taken up day to day hearing of the case since 2017, after a Supreme Court order. The last days of trial saw the surviving 32 accused appearing before the court and recording their statements under section 313 of the CrPC , some of them virtully . It should not come as a surprise that all the accused claimed innocence and alleged that they have been framed in the case.
