CBI RECORDS ONLY 6 STATEMENTS IN BABRI CASE

One-and-half years since the first witness, Hanuman Prasad, deposed before the Rae Bareli Court on December 5, 2007, statements of only five others have been recorded. According to CBI Counsel, the agency had called over 40 witnesses in the main case (FIR No. 198/92), registered at Ram Janambhoomi police station against eight persons including the senior BJP leaders Lal Krishan Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi and the Bhartiya Janshakti Party Supremo Uma Bharti., the then UP BJP Chief Vinay Katiyar and VHP leaders Ashok Singhal, Vishnu Hari Dalmiya, Sadhvi Ritambhara and Acharya Giriraj Kishore. According to the sources in the CBI, the process is taking a longer than time because of interruptions in the hearing on one pretext or the other. The case is at prosecution evidence stage. The statements of five witnesses have been recorded in the Court. The first charge sheet was filed by the UP Crime Branch’s CID against Advani and seven others under sections 153-A (promoting enmity between two classes at a place of worship), 153-B (imputations, assertions, pre-judicial to national integration in a place of worship) and 505 (spreading false statements and rumours etc.). The CID, however, excluded the conspiracy charge. In August 1993 the case was handed over to the CBI. As many as 48 other cases, including FIR No. 197 pertaining to conspiracy, communal frenzy and rioting, were also registered. Though FIR 197 was transferred to CBI on December 13, 1992, nobody was named in it. The 47 other cases were also transferred to CBI along with FIR No. 198 in August 1993. In October 1993, the CBI filed a consolidated charge sheet for all of the 49 cases. After Allahabad High Court quashed the charges against Advani and others in 2001, the CBI filed a revision petition and the main case was transferred to a Special CBI Court. The proceedings in 48 other cases were stayed. The CBI filed a supplementary charge sheet against Advani and others in May 2003.