Babri demolition case: CBI failed to show conspiracy or meeting of minds, says special court

The Lucknow Special Court, which acquitted all accused in the 1992 Babri demolition case, on Wednesday noted that the chief investigating officer, CBI's joint director M Narayanan, could not produce sufficient reliable evidence to show criminal conspiracy or meeting of minds prior to the razing down of the mosque.

In his judgment, Special Judge S K Yadav pointed out that the CBI officer admitted before the court that he could not find any person during the investigation to say he was provoked by the speech of any of the accused-leaders to bring down the structure.

"All video footages and cassettes produced by the CBI were neither in sealed condition nor were sent for any forensic examinations. The investigating officer also admitted that the probe was not conducted as per provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code," the court said.

The chief investigating officer also admitted before the court that in the demolition of the mosque, as many as 425 people had sustained injuries but none of them were made as accused in the case. "It was a duty of the officer to record their statements, which could have brought out some relevant material but he focussed only upon political persons and Hindu organisations," the court said.

In its 2300-page judgment, the court noted that the CBI officer, which adduced a number of newspaper reports to prove the charge of criminal conspiracy against the accused, admitted before it that he did not furnish the original report by any of the reporters. The investigating officer also admitted before the court that it is not necessary that a report published in the newspaper is correct but it has to be proved as true as per the Indian Evidence Act. The officer also conceded that the CBI did not visit the place to make physical verification about the news reports published before the demolition of the mosque.

"The newspaper clippings annexed in the case files were collected directly from the office of the newspaper. No seizure memo, receipt memo, or production memo were prepared which was the duty of the investigating officer," the court said.

The CBI produced a number of journalists and press photographers like Times Of India's Manoj Chhabra, Dainik Jagran's Sanjay Khare, Navbharat Times Ram Bahadur Thapa, Poineer's Ajay Kumar Singh, Qaumi Awaz's Naiyyar Zaidi, Sunday Magazine's Sharad Chandra Pradhan as witnesses to the case.