New Delhi, December 6
The Supreme Court today directed the Rae Bareily court holding trial in the Babri Masjid demolition case to expedite the hearings against senior BJP leader LK Advani and 19 other accused.

A bench comprising Justices HL Dattu and CK Prasad passed the order while allowing CBI’s plea for removing the name of Bal Thackeray from the list of accused persons as he died recently.

The trial court had, on May 4, 2001, dropped the crucial charge of conspiracy in the case against Advani and others. On May 21, 2010, the Allahabad High Court confirmed the trial court order, prompting the CBI to approach the SC.

Besides Advani, the CBI wants the conspiracy charge to be restored against Kalyan Singh, Uma Bharti, Satish Pradhan, CR Bansal, MM Joshi, Vinay Katiyar, Ashok Singhal, Giriraj Kishore, Sadhvi Ritambhara, VH Dalmia, Mahant Avaidhyanath, RV Vedanti, Param Hans Ram Chandra Das, Jagdish Muni Maharaj, BL Sharma, Nritya Gopal Das, Dharam Das, Satish Nagar and Moreshwar Save.

The Rae Bareily court is holding the hearings relating to other charges in the CBI chargesheet: promoting enmity between classes (Section 153A IPC), imputations and assertions prejudicial to national integration (153B), and false statements, rumours circulated with the intent to cause mutiny or disturb public peace (505).

Babri Masjid was brought down on December 6, 1992, when Kalyan Singh was Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister. Advani and other accused leaders were on the dais at Ram Katha Kunj in Ayodhya at that time, while lakhs of “unkown karsevaks” were in and around the disputed structure.