Special court verdict in Babri demolition case today

A special CBI court in Lucknow will deliver the much-awaited judgment in the 1992 Babri Masjid demolition case in which BJP veterans L K Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi are among the accused on Wednesday. CBI judge SK Yadav had on September 16 directed all the 32 surviving accused to remain present in the court on the day of the judgment. The accused include former deputy prime minister Advani, former Union ministers Joshi and Uma Bharti, former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Kalyan Singh, besides Vinay Katiyar and Sadhvi Rithambara. With both Bharti and Singh convalescing in separate hospitals after coronavirus infection, it is highly unlikely that they would be present in the court at the time of pronouncement of order. Singh, during whose tenure as chief minister of Uttar Pradesh the disputed structure was demolished, was put on trial in September last year after his tenure as governor of Rajasthan came to an end. Champat Rai, the general secretary of the trust in charge of constructing the Ram temple, is also among those accused.