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CBI likely to miss SC deadline in Babri case

NewsCBI likely to miss SC deadline in Babri case

25 witnesses are still to be examined, while some of the unexamined witnesses are untraceable.

 

New Delhi: The Supreme Court had in April 2017 set a two-year deadline to conclude the trial of BJP stalwarts L.K. Advani, M.M. Joshi, Uma Bharti and hundreds of others for their alleged role in the Babri structure demolition case. However, with barely two months left, it is very unlikely that CBI will be able to meet the deadline as it has not even completed examining of the prosecution witnesses in the case so far.

Sources aware of the matter said that out of the 357 prosecution witnesses that the CBI wanted to present, around 330 have been examined till date. “As of now, about 25 witnesses are still to be examined. Some of the unexamined witnesses are untraceable and efforts are being made to trace them,” CBI counsel M. Haque told The Sunday Guardian over phone from Lucknow.

“Besides the BJP leaders, the remaining witnesses also include former Investigating Officers of the case and Doordarshan officials who were present at the site and had covered the whole incident. Charges will be framed after CBI presents all its witnesses. Then the defence will present its witnesses, following which the argument in the case will take place. All these process will take ‘a lot of time’. It is impossible for the case to be completed within the two-year time-frame set by SC,” Haque added. On 19 April 2017, the Supreme Court Bench of Justices R.F. Nariman and P.C. Ghose had ordered day-to-day trial to be held and conclude the process of hearing within two years. While passing the order, the Apex Court had dubbed the demolition of the medieval structure as a “crime which shook the secular fabric of the Constitution” and allowed the CBI’s plea to restore criminal conspiracy charge against the VVIP accused. The court had, at the time, come down heavily on the CBI for the delay in the trial for 25 years. “The accused persons have not been brought to book largely because of the conduct of CBI in not pursuing the prosecution of the aforesaid alleged offenders in a joint trial, and because of technical defects which were easily curable, but which were not cured by the State Government,” the Bench had said.

It had also stated, “The Sessions Court will complete the trial and deliver the judgment within a period of two years from the date of receipt of this judgment.” Besides the three leaders, the accused against whom the conspiracy charge under Section 120-B (conspiracy) is being tried include Vinay Katiar, Sadhvi Ritambara, Vishnu Hari Dalmia, Champat Rai Bansal, Satish Pradhan, Dharam Das, Mahant Nritya Gopal Das, Mahamandleshwar Jagdish Muni, Ram Bilas Vedanti, Vaikunth Lal Sharma and Satish Chandra Nagar. The case is being heard in Court No.8 of the old High Court building in Lucknow and is being presided over by Special CBI Judge S.K. Yadav. Among those who have appeared as prosecution witnesses are around 20 journalists, including former BBC correspondent Mark Tully. Interestingly, in many cases, the CBI had issued summons to people like former Nav Bharat Times editor Vidya Niwas Mishra, who passed away more than 10 years ago.

 

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