UP calls for CBI probe into missing Babri Masjid files
Within days of being pulled up by the Allahabad high court's special bench hearing the Ram Janambhoomi-Babri Masjid Title Suits, the Uttar Pradesh government on Friday recommended a CBI probe into the `untraceable' crucial files pertaining to the case.
While Chief minister Mayawati announced this at a hastily arranged press conference, the state government said earlier in the day that it had lodged an FIR with the Hazratganj police station in the city regarding the missing files on Thursday night.
Police sources said no one has been named in the FIR, adding that it had been lodged to bring to record the missing of the 23 files containing documents relevant to the case.
The special bench had reprimanded the state government after it submitted that some crucial files containing correspondence and observations by senior officials were gone missing. This includes correspondence between the then Deputy Commissioner of Faizabad K K Nayyar and UP Chief Secretary Bhagwan Sahai in 1949, when the idols were placed inside the disputed structure.
According to sources, Nayyar had mentioned in one of the letters his inability to remove the idols as was asked by the government, stating that it would create bloodshed.
The documents also reportedly contain a telegram sent by the then prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru to the then UP chief minister (in 1949) regarding placing of idols inside the disputed structure. UP government officials claim that the documents may have been lost while being carried by an official to the Liberhan Commission in 2000. The official, who was carrying the documents, fell from the moving train and was killed. The Sunni Central Waqf Board, one of the plaintiffs in the suit, moved the court to direct the UP government to produce the documents.
Sunni Central Waqf Board lawyer Zafaryab Jilani claimed that the documents had existed till 1991. The UP government has sought the help of the Board in tracing the documents.
The case is now in the final stages, as the Board has completed its arguments and those of the Nirmohi Akhara are likely to be over shortly.
