By TwoCircles.net Staff reporter
Lucknow: The Special Court (Ayodhya Issue) of district session court in Lucknow on Tuesday framed charges against 23 accused including the then District Magistrate (DM) RN Srivastava, Sakshi Maharaj, Uma Bharti, Murli Manohar Joshi, Brij Bhushan Saran Singh and others. The trial of all the accused will begin from August 23.
The list of accused also includes Pawan Pandey, Jai Bhagwan Singh Goyal, Om Prakash Pandey, Sriprakash Sharma, Jaibhan Singh Pawaiyya, Dharmendra Singh Gurjar, Vinay Kumar Rai, Lalloo Singh, Ramji Gupta, Kamlesh Tripathi, Santosh Dubey, Gandhi Yadav, Hargovind Singh, Vijay Bahadur Singh, Navin Bhai Shukla, Ramesh Pratap Singh and Acharya Dharmendra Dev.
The court also ordered attachment of properties of one of the accused Lakshmi Narain Das Mahatyagi for absconding. The court has framed the charges in crime number 197/92 u/s 153A, 153B, 295, 332, 395 and 120B of Indian Penal Code. The court also maintained that accused can obtain the video and audio footage and other proofs submitted by CBI on their own expenses before the starting of evidence.
To recall, after the demolition of Babri Masjid/Ram Janam Bhoomi in Ayodhya on December 6, 1992, the CBI has filed a charge sheet in the court on October 5, 1993. Later, a supplementary charge sheet was filed. However, the special judge Ayodhya Issue, S K Shukla had dropped the prosecution proceedings on May 4, 2001 against 49 accused which included LK Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Kalyan Singh, Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackerey, Satish Pradhan, Champak Rai, Uma Bharti, Jagdish Muni Maharaj, Paramhans Maharaj Das, Dr Ram Vilas Vedanti, Vinay Katiyar, Ashok Singhal, Giriraj Kishore, Sadhvi Rithambhara, Vishnu hari Dalmia, K Nath, Mahant Adityanath, Baikunth Lal Sharma Prem, Mahant Nritya Gopal Das, Satish Nagar and Moreshwar Sathe.
The CBI has challenged the order of the session court and filed a criminal revision in the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court which was also dismissed.