Babri Masjid
Babri Masjid demolition case: CBI court completes recording statements of accused
Lucknow/UNI: The special CBI court on Tuesday completed recording of statements of the accused in Babri masjid demolition case.
Of the 32 accused, 31, including former Deputy PM Lal Krishna Advani, former union minister Dr Murli Manohar Joshi and former UP CM Kalyan Singh, have recorded their statements.
Today, the CBI court of special judge S K Yadav recorded the statement of 31st accused Satish Pradhan through video conferencing. However one accused Om Prakash Pandey, is absconding, as he has reported embraced sainthood and could not be located.
The court has given time till July 30 to the defence counsels to submit their written arguments.
As per the Supreme court direction, the special court could give its verdict on the 28-year-old case by August 31.
However, all the accused have claimed innocence and said they were politically implicated in the conspiracy.
Advani , who recorded his statement on July 24 through video-conferencing from New Delhi, had denied all charges of the CBI made against him on the conspiracy to demolish the Babri mosque structure on December 6,1992.
The BJP leader alleged that all the charges were made due to political reasons.
On July 23, Dr Murli Manohar Joshi appeared through video conferencing from Delhi and claimed the same.
Dr Joshi said he was not present at the time of the demolition and was being politically implicated in the case. He refuted all charges of the prosecution and even said that the evidence against him were fabricated. He also said that the video presented against him was doctored and he will present evidence of his innocence later.
Former Uttar Pradesh chief minister and accused in the case Kalyan Singh, while deposing before the trial court on July 13, had blamed the then Congress government of implicating him.
Singh said that all the charges against him were baseless and politically motivated.
"As a chief minister of UP, we had made elaborate security to protect the structure and from time to time have given orders to strengthen its security cover," he said before the court.
All the statements of the accused were recorded under section 313 of the CrPC in the court of Special CBI judge S K Yadav.
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