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Many a twist and turn

New Delhi: It took 17 years and countless extensions for the Liberhan Commission finally to submit its final report on the demolition of the Babri Masjid. But this was not a lonely odyssey. In all this time, two criminal cases were being shunted from court to court — both relating to the demolition of the Babri Masjid on December 6, 1992. The legal expedition, which continues to this day in two separate courts in Rae Bareli and Lucknow, saw many twists and turns. Among them, the discharge of Lal Krishna Advani on September 19, 2003 by the trial court in Rae Bareli and the setting aside of that order by the Allahabad High Court on July 6, 2005. Currently, Mr. Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi and six others face trial but not for criminal conspiracy.

The two cases go back to the day of the demolition. Immediately after the Babri Masjid was brutally torn down, two FIRs were filed in an Ayodhya police station. The first was against “lakhs of unknown karsevaks” (case 197) for the offence of demolition. The second (case 198) was against eight persons, among them Mr. Advani, Mr. Joshi and Uma Bharti. FIR 198 charged the eight leaders with making inflammatory speeches leading to the demolition.

After the dismissal of the Kalyan Singh government, the State government ( then under President’s Rule) assigned case 197 (demolition) to the Central Bureau of Investigation while leaving the State CID to prosecute case 198 (speeches) in a special court in Rae Bareli. But because the two cases were related, the CBI eventually took charge of both, filing a composite charge sheet against Mr. Advani and others on October 5, 1993.

The CBI’s composite charge sheet spoke of a secret meeting held on December 5, 1992, at the residence of Vinay Katiyar (Bajrang Dal), which was attended by Mr. Advani and others “wherein a final decision to demolish the disputed structure was taken.” Two courts found the charges prima facie tenable. The first was the court of Special Judicial Magistrate Mahipal Sirohi, which, on August 27, 1994, committed the accused to the Sessions Court. Additional Sessions Judge Jagdish Prasad Srivastava, while framing charges on September 9, 1997, noted that: “It is concluded that in the present case a criminal conspiracy to demolish the disputed structure ... was hatched by the accused in the beginning of 1990 and was completed on 6.12.92.”

However, from here on the cases would stumble — because of a technical error committed by the Uttar Pradesh government while seeking to transfer jurisdiction of case 198 from Rae Bareli to Lucknow. The law required the State government to do this in consultation with the High Court, which formality it had overlooked. Thus, on February 12, 2001, Justice Jagdish Bhalla of the Allahabad High Court struck down as invalid the reference of case 198 to the CBI court. However, his judgment upheld the composite charge sheet as well as the framing of charges by Justice Srivastava. Justice Bhalla in fact observed that the technical flaw was “curable” by another notification issued in consultation with the High Court.

Two months later, on May 4, 2001, the Sessions Judge at Lucknow, Srikant Shukla, (now trying only case 197) dropped the conspiracy charge against Mr. Advani and the other leaders, reasoning that case no. 197 related only to karsevaks who had pulled down the structure. Case 198, where conspiracy was alleged, was no longer under his jurisdiction, he said.

By this time, politics had united the BJP and the Bahujan Samaj Party, and there were no takers for Justice Bhalla’s suggestion that the technical flaw disallowing a composite charge sheet be cured. On September 28, 2002 (when Mayawati was Chief Minister), case number 198 was re-transferred to the Rae Bareli court. This was upheld by the Supreme Court.

On May 30, 2003, the CBI filed a fresh charge sheet against Mr. Advani, Mr. Joshi and others in the Special Court at Rae Bareli. This time the agency itself did not press the charge of criminal conspiracy (Section 120B of the IPC). Instead, the accused leaders were charged under various other Sections of the IPC for offences such as spreading communal frenzy, rioting etc.

On September 19, 2003, the Rae Bareli Special Court discharged Mr. Advani while deciding to frame charges against the other leaders. On July 7, 2005, the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court set aside the trial court order discharging Mr. Advani, and committed him to trial.

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