India: Babri ghost returns to haunt Advani (various reports)

The Telegraph (Calcutta), April 1 , 2015

Babri ghost returns to haunt Advani
Our Legal Correspondent

New Delhi, March 31: The Supreme Court has asked BJP leaders L.K. Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi to say why the "criminal conspiracy" charge against them in the Babri Masjid demolition case should not be reinstated, on an appeal by an Ayodhya resident.

Haji Mehboob Ahmed, 72, a petitioner in the title suit, has filed the appeal against the 2010 Allahabad High Court order that upheld a 2001 trial court order dropping the conspiracy charge against Advani and 19 others.

A bench of Chief Justice H.L. Dattu and Justice Arun Misra issued notices to all the accused, who are also respondents in a similar appeal filed by the CBI in February 2013 against the May 2010 high court order.

Justice Dattu told senior counsel Kapil Sibal, appearing for Ahmed, that he would have to convince the court why his appeal has been filed so late.

Ahmed told The Telegraph from Ayodhya that he had approached the Supreme Court because he was afraid the case would be diluted now that the BJP was in power at the Centre. (See chart)

During the brief hearing, additional solicitor-general Neeraj Kishan Kaul sought and was granted three weeks' time to argue on the merits of the CBI appeal against the BJP leaders.

When the appeal against the discharge of Advani and the others - Union minister Uma Bharti and Rajasthan governor Kalyan Singh among them - was filed in 2013, the UPA was in power at the Centre. Now, when the CBI is to justify that appeal, it is under a BJP government.

There are two sets of cases - one against Advani and others who were on the dais at Ram Katha Kunj in Ayodhya on December 6, 1992, when the Babri mosque was demolished, and another against lakhs of unknown karsevaks who were in and around the disputed structure and were actually involved in the demolition.

The CBI had chargesheeted Advani and 19 others under Sections 153A (promoting enmity between classes), 153B (imputations, assertions prejudicial to national integration) and 505 (false statements, rumours etc. circulated with the intent to cause mutiny or disturb public peace) of the Indian Penal Code.

It had subsequently invoked the charge under Section 120B (criminal conspiracy), which was quashed by the special CBI court.

Upholding the special court's order, the high court had said the CBI at no point of time, either during the trial at Rae Bareli or in its revision petition, had ever stated that there was an offence of criminal conspiracy against the senior BJP leaders.

Besides Advani, Joshi, Uma Bharti and Singh, the others against whom the charge was dropped included Satish Pradhan, C.R. Bansal, Ashok Singhal, Giriraj Kishore, Sadhvi Ritambhara, V.H. Dalmia, Mahant Avaidhynath, R.V. Vedanti, Param Hans Ram Chandra Das, Jagdish Muni Maharaj, B.L. Sharma, Nritya Gopal Das, Dharam Das, Satish Nagar and Moreshwar Save.

Shiv Sena founder Bal Thackeray's name was removed from the list of accused persons after his death.

o o o

The Indian Express

Babri Masjid demolition case: Courts are ‘the only way ahead when accused are in govt’, says Haji Mehboob
Written by Seema Chishti | New Delhi | Published on:April 1, 2015 1:32 am
Haji Mehboob, 77, is a well-known figure in Ayodhya for residents as well as the journalists who travel there every so often to report on the mandir-masjid dispute.

A member of the Aman Committee, he is held in high regard but his standing was not able to prevent the arson and looting that accompanied the demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992. He fled to a neighbouring village relatively untouched by the tension. His Ayodhya home is just a stone’s throw from what used to be the Babri Masjid.

Asked what prompted him to petition the Supreme Court at a time when the BJP was in a full majority in the Centre and L K Advani had been awarded the Padma Bhushan just hours earlier, he replied, “I believe that there is justice and I have full faith in the Supreme Court. [. . .]
http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/babri-masjid-demolition-case-courts-are-the-only-way-ahead-when-accused-are-in-govt-says-haji-mehboob/

o o o

Babri Masjid demolition case: Sitaram Yechury lauds SC notice to Advani
Tuesday, 31 March 2015 - 6:46pm IST | Place: New Delhi | Agency: ANI

http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-babri-masjid-demolition-case-sitaram-yechury-lauds-sc-notice-to-advani-2073519