L K Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi part of plot to raze Babri Masjid: CBI

NEW DELHI: The CBI told the apex court on Thursday that BJP leaders L K Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi and Uma Bharti had conspired with other accused for the demolition of Babri mosque in 1992 and sought revival of conspiracy charges against them.
Appearing before a bench of Justices P C Ghose and R F Nariman, additional solicitor general (ASG) Niraj Kishan Kaul contended that eight leaders who were being tried in a Rae Bareli court for offences under various sections of IPC including Section 153A (promoting enmity between classes) and Section 153B (imputations, assertions prejudicial to national integration), should also face prosecution for criminal conspiracy.The ASG said 13 other accused were not facing any proceedings in any court after conspiracy charges were dropped against them and urged the Supreme Court to revive proceedings against them.
"All acted under a larger conspiracy and proceedings should go on against them under Section 120B also. All the accuse worked in tandem and they should be prosecuted together," Kaul told the court. Senior advocate K K Venugopal, appearing for Advani and Joshi, refuted the CBI's allegation and told the bench that there was no evidence to substantiate conspiracy charges against them. "Is it a case that he conspired with more than one lakh kar sevaks. What is the conspiracy? It had to be found out whether there was a conspiracy at all. Section 120B was blindly mentioned in the case," he said.
Venugopal said that if the conspiracy charge was revived against the leaders, then they should be tried only in Rae Bareli court and there should be no joint trial along with kar sevaks.