Rae Bareli (UP), May 31
The CBI today submitted its charge sheet against the eight accused in the Ayodhya demolition case at the special Ayodhya court here.
Charge sheets were filed against Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani, Union Human Resource Development Minister Murli Manohar Joshi, state BJP chief Vinay Katiyar, Uma Bharti, Vishnu Hari Dalmia, Ashok Singhal, Acharya Giri Raj Kishore and Sadhvi Ritambhara.
CBI counsel S.S. Gandhi also filed a supplementary report containing the statements of 39 witnesses, documents and press reports relating to the investigation in case no 198/92 done by the agency after September 10, 1993.
M. Naryanan, CBI, SSP, had appeared before the special court on May 13 and sought time to file the report and documents on the ground of the sudden illness of the agency’s counsel S S Gandhi. The court had directed the CBI to file its report on May 31.
The counsels for the defence Mahipal Ahloowalia, Maniraj
Singh Rathore and Vimal Srivastava sought time for the scrutinising of the documents and also asked for the copies of the papers submitted by the Uttar Pradesh CB-CID.
The court ordered the copies of newspapers, photographs, pictures, audio-video cassettes filed by the crime branch of the CID along with its charge sheet be prepared as per rules and fixed June 13 as the next date of hearing in the case.
The counsels for the defence again sought exemption from personal appearance till further orders for the accused. They pleaded that in the context of the present security scenario, it would be inexpedient to the accused from every angle to appear in person in the court.
It would also create difficulties for the local administration in addition to hampering the working of the applicants in discharging of the duties of their offices, they said.
Special Judicial Magistrate V.K. Singh heard their pleas but granted exemption from personal appearance to the accused only for today.
Leh: Deputy Prime Minister L. K. Advani on Saturday refused to comment on the CBI filing charge sheet against him and seven other accused in the Ayodhya demolition case.
Mr Advani, who has come to attend the annual ‘Sindhu Darshan’ cultural festival here, said he would not comment on the sensitive issue now. He would make comment on this development only by tomorrow after going through the details of the charge sheet.
Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh BJP chief Uma Bharti, who was named in the supplementary charge sheet filed in the Babri Masjid demolition case in a special court at Rae Bareily, said today that she would not try to escape conviction if she was found guilty.
“I would accept whatever punishment the court awards me,” she said here.
“I’ve been involved in the Ram Temple movement from the very beginning,” Ms Bharti said adding that though she did not bring down the structure herself, she was present in Ayodhya on December 6,1992.
“Hence, I would not try to escape conviction in any way if the court finds me guilty,” she added.
Agencies
