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Ayodhya case deferred till Sept 19
Our Correspondent

Rae Bareli, September 12
The special court in Rae Bareli, hearing the Babri Mosque demolition case, is likely to frame charges against Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishan Advani and seven others on September 19, official sources said here today.

“Judge V.K. Singh was earlier slated to give judgement on the framing of charges against Mr Advani and others today, but due to the objections raised by defence counsel he deferred the case till September 19,” court official told reporters in Rae Bareli, 80 km south of Lucknow.

Mr Advani and seven others, including Union Human Resource Minister Murli Manohar Joshi, BJP leaders Uma Bharati, Vinay Katiyar and VHP senior leaders Ashok Singhal, Giriraj Kishore, Vishnu Mohan Dalmiya and sadhvi Ritambara are charged with inciting kar sevaks, which led to the demolition of the mosque in Ayodhya on December 6, 1992.

Defence counsel Mridul Rakesh raised objections saying that the court had not heard the defence on the supplementary questions raised by the CBI. The defense argued earlier the CBI had claimed that it had questioned 800 witnesses and its chargesheet was based on their statements. But later the CBI claimed that there were only 90 witnesses.

Mr Rakesh told The Tribune that the CBI had also presented some papers quoting court cases and we needed some time to go through these papers. “Therefore we sought more time and the court, after consultation with both parties, agreed to defer the case till September 19,” he said.