Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh): Senior BJP leader Uma Bharti Thursday appeared in person before a special court here conducting trial in the 1992 Babri mosque demolition case.
The special CBI court is currently recording the statements of 32 accused under CrPC section 313 (court's power to examine the accused), a stage in the trial that follows the examination of prosecution witnesses.
The 61-year-old saffron clad BJP leader is the 19th accused to depose before the court in the over 27-year-old case.
The other accused include former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Kalyan Singh, former deputy prime minister L K Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Uma Bharti, Vinay Katiyar, Sadhvi Rithambara, Sakshi Maharaj and Ram Vilas Vedanti.
Their lawyers have indicated to the CBI court that they prefer to appear through video conferencing.
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On April 19, 2017, the Supreme Court had ordered the special judge to conduct a day-to-day trial, concluding it in two years.
The remaining accused will be produced in the court gradually.
Notably, the court has been conducting day-to-day proceedings in order to conclude the trial by August 31, as directed by the Supreme Court.
The Babri Masjid was demolished in December 1992 by "kar sevaks" who claimed that the mosque in Ayodhya was built on the site of an ancient Ram temple.It is pertinent to be mentioned here that the testimony of the accused is currently going on in the special court of CBI in Lucknow in the disputed structure demolition case of Ayodhya.
So far, the testimony of many other accused including Ram Vilas Vedanti, Vijay Bahadur Gandhi, Yadav Prakash Sharma has been already deposed before the court. The court is at present engaged in recording statements of accused under section 313 of the CrPC, a stage in the trial which follows the completion of the examination of prosecution witnesses.
With inputs from PTI.
