By Mumtaz Alam Falahi, TwoCircles.net,
New Delhi: Some important documents related to the Babri Masjid case seem to have been destroyed in the Lucknow secretariat of the Uttar Pradesh government as it has been unable to produce them before the special court since 2002.
Despite several orders by the special court hearing the case, the state government could not produce the files comprising correspondence between the Chief Secretary and the authorities of Faizabad district. In 1949 Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru had sent a telegram to the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh asking the authorities to remove the idols forthwith. That important telegram is also missing from the files of the secretariat.
Advocate Mushtaque Ahmed Siddiqui speaking to TCN
“The 1949 correspondence between chief secretary and authorities of Faizabad includes different letters and a telegram of PM Jawaharlal Nehru to Chief Minister of UP that idols should be removed forthwith. The court has been seeking the documents since 2002 but the government was delaying. When the court became tough the chief secretary appeared before the court in person last week. He told the court there was no such file in the secretariat,” Advocate Mushtaque Ahmed Siddiqui looking the case along with Advocate Zafaryab Jilani told TwoCircles.net on phone from Lucknow.
“When the court asked chief secretary to submit the files comprising correspondence between Faizabad DM and chief secretary, he came up with the files in which letters sent from Faizabad DM are intact but there is no letter sent by chief secretary to the DM. The telegram of PM Nehru was also missing in the files,” Advocate Mushtaque said.
The court has taken in its possession the files presented by the chief secretary and asked him to produce the telegram and the letters sent by chief secretary to Faizabad DM on July 6. The court has gone on vacation and first hearing will take place on July 6.
The court has expressed its anguish on how the papers were destroyed when the case is open.
How significant are the missing papers? “Though the Babri Masjid is established with other evidences, if court gets the government records it will be weightier,” the advocate said.
Could there be some conspiracy to destroy or misplace the documents? “Some authorities below the chief secretary level want that those papers do not reach the court. Their purpose could be just to delay the case,” Advocate Mushtaque said.
He, however, said the state government will be forced to find the papers. The court asked the government to either declare that the papers were never with them or give details as to how and when they were destroyed and what action was taken against those responsible for it.