1992 Babri demolition was planned sabotage: News portal

The 1992 Babri Mosque demolition was an ''act of planned sabotage'' and not a by frenzied mob of Hindu outfits, a news portal claimed today on the basis of a sting operation it had carried over a period of two years.

At a press conference here, Cobrapost editor Anirudh Behl screened the recorded interviews in which some low rung leaders of BJP, VHP and Shiv Sena have claimed that the operation was carried out with precision by their volunteers after going through intensive training and mock drills.

Among those who were interviewed were BJP leaders Uma Bharti, Kalyan Singh and Vinay Katiyar, who talked about the the events in the run up to the demolition.

Behl rejected BJP's charge that the sting operation was being made public at the behest of Congress for polarising elections.

Asked about BJP's demand that the Election Commission stop the telecasting of the sting operation, he said, "We have not got any information from Election Commission regarding this.

"Our stand is that it is the responsibility of the media. We are not contesting the elections. Our aim is to bring out the truth and that is what we have shown. Truth is bitter to some people. Whichever authority demands tapes from us, we will provide it to them."

Codenamed 'Operation Janmabhoomi', the exercise was based on the interview of 23 leaders who were allegedly in the forefront of the demolition for which a conspiracy was hatched at the level of two Hindu outfits, VHP and Shiv Sena, but not jointly, he said.

The "confessions" named BJP leaders L K  Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Uma Bharti and others for "secretly planning" out the demolition in an elaborate way, the news portal said.

The tapes claimed that even the then chief minister of Uttar Pradesh Kalyan Singh and former Prime Minister P V Narsimha Rao were in the know about the imminent demolition.