Babri Masjid demolition case: CBI court grants bail to LK Advani, MM Joshi, Uma Bharti

Demolition of Babri Masjid: LK Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi and Uma Bharti appeared before the court for framing of charges in the light of a Supreme Court order restoring the serious offence of criminal conspiracy against them.

A special CBI court granted bail to BJP leaders LK Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi and Uma Bharti after they appeared before it in connection with the Babri Masjid demolition case.

BJP leader LK Advani arrives at the guest house in Lucknow ahead of the CBI court hearing on the Babri Masjid demolition. He is greeted by Ram Vilas Vedanti and Mahant Dharamdas who will also appear before court. Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath is also seen. (Deepak Gupta/Hindustan Times)

Bail was also granted to BJP leader Vinay Katiyar, VHP’s Vishnu Hari Dalmia and one-time Hindutva firebrand Sadhvi Ritambara, who were also present before the court on Tuesday.

All six were given bail on a personal bond of Rs 50,000 each by CBI special judge SK Yadav.

They appeared before the court for framing of charges in the light of a Supreme Court order restoring the serious offence of criminal conspiracy against them.

After the court’s order on the discharge applications, charges will be framed in the politically sensitive case, lawyers attending the proceedings said.

The court, which is hearing two separate cases relating to the demolition of the 16th-century mosque, had granted bail to Mahant Nritya Gopal Das, Mahant Ram Vilas Vedanti, Baikunth Lal Sharma alias Prem Ji, Champat Rai Bansal, Mahant Dharma Das and Satish Pradhan earlier this month in the second matter.

The Supreme Court had on April 19 ordered the prosecution of Advani, Joshi, Bharti and the others, directing that the trial be concluded in two years.

Advani met Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Tuesday morning after he arrived at the VVIP guest house in Lucknow before leaving for the special court.

The Supreme Court had called the destruction of the mosque a “crime” which shook the “secular fabric of the Constitution” while allowing the CBI’s plea seeking restoration of the criminal conspiracy charge against the four BJP leaders, including Katiyar (62), and against Ritambara (53) and Dalmia, who is in his late eighties.

However, the top court had said BJP leader and Rajasthan governor Kalyan Singh, who was the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh when the structure was razed, was entitled to immunity under the Constitution as long as he held the gubernatorial office.

It had transferred the case against Advani, Joshi, Bharti and three other accused from a Raebareli court to Lucknow for a joint trial in the demolition case.

Hindutva leader Vedanti claimed that he was among those who had pulled down the disputed structure in Ayodhya.

“I was one of those who had pulled the dome down,” Vedanti, who appeared before the special court in the Ayodhya case, told reporters earlier.