Supreme Court headed by Chief Justice HL Dattu had sought responses from senior BJP Leader L K Advani and others on a plea against dropping criminal conspiracy charges that was made against them in Babri Masjid demolition case.
Earlier Allahabad High Court had given a verdict where the conspiracy charges against Advani and 19 others in Babri masjid demolition case and CBI had moved against the decision of High Court in Supreme Court.
CBI in a brief hearing had sought time for filing a fresh affidavit based on merits of the case. Apex court granted the plea and granted 4 weeks’ time to file response. Earlier apex court had pulled up CBI for delay in filing an appeal against High Court verdict. High court which had upheld special court’s decision on May 21, 2010 of dropping the charges against the leaders like Advani, Kalyan Singh, Uma Bharti, Vinay Katiyar and Murli Manohar Joshi which was later challenged by CBI. Other persons who were involved in this case included Satish Pradhan, C R Bansal, Ashok Singhal, Giriraj Kishore, SadhviRitambhara, V H Dalmia, MahantAvaidhynath, R V Vedanti, Param Hans Ram Chandra Das, Jagdish Muni Maharaj, B L Sharma, Nritya Gopal Das, Dharam Das, Satish Nagar and Moreshwar Save and High Court had dropped charges against them too in its order.
On a separate plea filed by Haji Mahboob Ahmad, one of the petitioners in the Babri mosque case Apex Court issued notices to the BJP leader and the CBI. Ahmad has alleged in his plea that CBI can dilute its stand in the wake of the change in the government at the centre. CBI is yet to persuade the court on justification for delay in challenging the high court order as it had moved the apex court on 18 February 2011.
The CBI in its appeal before the apex court has said that 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”. High Court in its order had noted that evidence was almost same for all the offences.
by Sushma Javare.