The 2300-pages of verdict pointed towards insufficient evidence and possible tampering of video and audio proof and anti- social elements for the razing of the structure.

The public looked at the verdict in utter shock and moreover with irony as the events that led to December 6 1992, unfolded right in front of their eyes. They knew without doubt who did it, why they did it and what did it cost as a nation. Among them who could undoubtedly say that the demolition was meticulously planned is Justice Manmohan Singh Liberhan who headed the Liberhan Ayodhya Commission of Inquiry for 17 years.

The Liberhan Commission, set up in 1992 to probe the Babri Masjid Demolition, had in its report submitted in 2009, pointed to the involvement of senior RSS and BJP leaders, including L K Advani, Murali Manohar Joshi and Uma Bharti and the involvement of the then Uttar Pradesh government. “They either actively or passively supported the demolition,” it said.

“I found it was a civil conspiracy, I still believe in it. From all the evidence produced before me, it was clear that the Babri Masjid demolition was meticulously planned,” Justice Libheran said to The Indian Express.

Justice Liberan also said that BJP leader Uma Bharti categorically took the responsibility of the demolition.

The Liberhan Commission said the mobilisation of “kar sevaks” was neither “spontaneous or voluntary” but “orchestrated and planned”. The report named over 60 people – including senior BJP leaders Advani, Joshi, Bharti and A B Vajpayee, RSS and VHP leaders, bureaucrats – as “culpable” for “leading the country to the brink of communal discord.

“It was the leadership of the BJP, a national political party, which came forward to mobilising the people on the Ayodhya temple issue, along with Mathura and Kashi. It challenged constitutional secularism by calling it pseudo-secularism,” the report said.

The Commission added that on December 6 1992 – the day Babri Masjid was demolished, Advani and Joshi were present at the spot, and they made a ‘feeble request’ to the kar sevaks to stop the demolition and come down from the dome.

The Commission also criticised the then Congress’s Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao’s led government at the center.

Justice Liberhan said that given the evidence and the witnesses that were presented before him, anybody could have concluded that the demolition was a premeditated action.

The 82-year-old former Chief Justice of Andhra Pradesh and Madras High Courts said the demolition could have been prevented with administrative planning and action. He had made this point in his report, saying that no preventive steps were taken to avert the demolition, or prevent the spread of communal hatred.

However, Justice Liberhan refused to comment on the CBI court’s decision, he said that “I believe everyone does his job honestly. The court has the right to differ, there can be no dispute about its power or working.”

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“Anti-social elements brought down the structure. The accused leaders tried to stop these people,” said the special judge, whose term had been extended for this verdict. The judge also said the audio and video evidence produced by the CBI did not establish conspiracy charges.

BJP leaders LK Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi and Uma Bharti were all acquitted of conspiracy charges in a landmark verdict that has evoked strong reactions across the country.

A trending hashtag “No one demolished Babri” is doing the rounds in social media. The hashtag is a reminiscent of a Hindi film “No one killed Jessica”.

Several politicians, actors tweeted about the verdict that came after 28 years.

AIMIM cheif Asaduddin Owaisi said the CBI special court’s verdict in the Babri Masjid demolition case marks a sad and black day in the history of Indian judiciary. Meanwhile Muslim Personal Law Board is likely to challenge the verdict in High Court.

Expressing the outrage Mr.Owaisi called it obnoxious. “This judgment satisfies the collective consciousness of hindutva and its followers and ideology.” He wondered how the court could state that there was no conspiracy in the matter. “Was it some sort of magic that on December 6 the masjid was demolished? Who called for the assembling of the people over there? Who made sure that they entered over there?” he said.

Meanwhile Muslim Personal Law Board is likely to challenge the verdict in High Court.

Congress leader Ahmed Patel called the verdict “shocking” and tweeted:

The Babri verdict is shocking, it goes contrary to principles of natural justice & even the SC’s observation

— Ahmed Patel Memorial (@ahmedpatel) September 30, 2020

Calling it a “complete travesty of justice”, Left leader Sitaram Yechury recalled how a Constitution bench headed by the then Chief Justice had called the demolition “an egregious violation of law”.

“A complete travesty of Justice. All charged with criminal conspiracy to demolish Babri Masjid acquitted. It self imploded? The Constitution Bench headed by then CJI had said that demolition was an “egregious” violation of law. Now this verdict! Shame,” Mr Yechury tweeted.

Activist lawyer Prashant Bhushan responded tweeting , “There was no mosque there . Justice in New India!”

There was no mosque there. Justice in new India! https://t.co/JdqfgWqzLm

— Prashant Bhushan (@pbhushan1) September 30, 2020

Actor Swara Bhasker tweeted in Hindi saying, “The Babri Masjid fell on its own.”

Gujarat MLA Jignesh Mevani shared a photo of two magazines, then and last year, about the Babri Masjid and tweeted: “1992 and 2019… And in 2020: today, actually no one demolished #BabriMasjid. Like Kapil Mishra is in reality a great messenger of peace, Babri demolition and Rath Yatra was in reality just a fake news. All media stories before 2014 was fake news, only post-BJP media is truth (sic).”

1992 and 2019…
And in 2020: today, actually no one demolished #BabriMasjid.
Like Kapil Mishra is in reality a great messenger of peace, Babri demolition and Rath Yatra was in reality just a fake news. All media stories before 2014 was fake news, only post-BJP media is truth. pic.twitter.com/HbMnbjYnBm

— Jignesh Mevani (@jigneshmevani80) September 30, 2020

Actor Richa Chaddha tweeted in Hindi: “There is a court above this place, where there is light and not darkness.”

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CBI judge SK Yadav, who had directed all 32 accused to be present during the proceedings today, has arrived at the court. While BJP veterans have skipped the proceedings, Vinay Katiyar, Dharamdas, Vedanti, Lallu Singh, Champat Rai, and Pawan Pandey are among the accused who will be in the court today. While Advani, Joshi, and co-accused Nritya Gopal Das are above 80 years of age Bharti and another accused, Satish Pardhan, are in hospital.

Special CBI court judge Surendra Kumar Yadav had already issued directives to all the accused, including former Deputy PM LK Advani, BJP stalwarts Murli Manohar Joshi, form UP CM and ex-Governor of Rajasthan Kalyan Singh, former BJP lawmaker Vinay Katiyar and Uma Bharti along with 32 others.

The court tried those who were allegedly involved in the criminal conspiracy leading to the demolition of Babri mosque by frenzied kar sevaks in Ayodhya on December 6, 1992.

The court also completed all proceedings in the case by recording statements of all 32 accused. Lawyer KK Mishra, who is representing 25 out of the 32 accused in the case, including Advani, Joshi, Kalyan Singh, Uma Bharti, had also confirmed the date set by the court for delivering the verdict.

The Supreme Court had given the CBI court a one-month extension, instructing it to wind up the case by September 30. The earlier deadline for judgment had expired on August 31.

The charges of conspiracy are in addition to the existing charges against the accused of promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, for which they are also facing trial. The accused are also facing charges of having made assertions “prejudicial to national integration and injuring or defiling a place of worship”. The CBI had filed a chargesheet against 49 people in the case, of whom 17 died during trial. The court recorded statements of 351 prosecution witnesses.

On April 19, 2017, the Supreme Court had ordered the special judge to conduct day-to-day trial, concluding it in two years.

The SC had termed the Allahabad High Court’s February 12, 2001 verdict dropping conspiracy charges against Advani and others as “erroneous”.

Before the 2017 verdict of the apex court, there were two sets of cases relating to the demolition, going on in Lucknow and Rae Bareli.

The first case referred to kar sevaks who were proceeded against in a Lucknow court, while the second set of cases relating to eight VIPs was being heard in a Rae Bareli court.

In April 2017, the Supreme Court transferred the Rae Bareli case to the Special CBI court in Lucknow.

While Advani and Joshi attended court proceeding and recorded statements through video conference, the rest of the accused appeared in Lucknow to record their statements.

Almost all the accused pleaded not guilty and termed it as a conspiracy hatched by their political rivals to frame them in a conspiracy case.

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The special CBI court is expected to deliver the much-awaited judgment in the Babri Masjid demolition case on September 30 in which senior leaders from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) stand as the accused.

Former BJP presdients L.K. Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Kalyan Singh and former Union Minister Uma Bharti are amongst the prime accused in the case. The special judge Surendra Kumar Yadav has directed all the accused persons to remain present in the court on the day of the judgment.

It may be recalled that the criminal case aganist BJP, RSS, VHP and Bajranj Dal leaders and Karsevakas involved in the demolition of the mosque on December 6, 1992 was pending before the Special CBI court even as the Supreme Court settled the title dispute of the land at Ayodhya.

The Supreme Court on August 19 directed the CBI Special Judge to conclude the proceedings and deliver the judgment latest by September 30.
The BJP leaders facing trial for the demolition of Babri Masjid at Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh have been charged for various offences under the Indian Penal Code (IPC), which included promoting enmity between religious groups (section 153A), making statements affecting national integration (section 153B) or which are likely to cause public mischief (section 505).

The Supreme Court on April 19, 2017 had directed the sessions court to complete the trial and deliver its judgment within a period of two years. However, the trial could not be extended. The top court, thus, granted the last extension till September 30. The court had transferred the trial pending in the Court of the Special Judicial Magistrate at Rae Bareilly to the Court of Additional Sessions Judge (Ayodhya Matters) at Lucknow to be heard together.

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She writes, “It would be a mistake to see the Ayodhya ceremony as a mere diversionary tactic in the midst of a pandemic and a sinking economy. For the architects of the Hindu Rashtra, it is a day to blow the conch shells and rejoice. The fact that this will happen on August 5 that marks the anniversary of the abolition of Article 370, that they have viewed as an abomination, is a matter of celebration and not a cause of concern for them.”

Ms. Naqvi quotes V D Savarkar, “It was the “Prince of Ayodhya” who established the Hindu nation. “The day when the Horse of Victory returned to Ayodhya unchallenged and unchallengeable… that day was the real birth-day of our Hindu people,”

Savarkar would say that a Hindu was someone for whom India was both the pitrabhumi (land of ancestors) and punya bhumi (holy land), by which definition Muslims and Christians were excluded, says the senior journalist in her articles.

Ayodhya lies in the region once known for a cultural effervescence often described as Ganga-Jumni tehzeeb, that sounds like an outdated cliché today. For one, more rivers run through the region besides the Ganga and Yamuna. There is the Saryu along which Ayodhya stands and the Gomti that cuts through Lucknow. Faizabad, the town to which Ayodhya is attached, was the first capital of the Nawabs of Awadh, who patronised music, the arts, the dance form of kathak, and made donations to many temples. Ayodhya’s pre-eminent temple to date has been the Hanumangarhi, whose construction was supported with several revenue land grants by the nawabs.

Recalling her first trip to Ayodhya in November 1992, weeks before the Babri mosque was brought down, Ms. Naqvi says it was in the backdrop of the Ram janmabhoomi movement, that she began her reporting career travelling across India searching for the survival or death of syncretic traditions and a composite culture.

The Awadh region, she says, has birthed many cultures and contesting memories, from a nawab who would compose a dance drama called Radha Kanhaiyya ka Kissa, to the great singer of thumris and ghazals named Akhtari Bai Faizabadi, whom we know as Begum Akhtar.

Now the metaphorical Prince of Ayodhya returns and a grand symbol of the recast Hindu nation shall dominate the skyline.

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A Malayali, KKK Nair alias Kishnakumar Karunakaran Nair, of Kainikari in Alappuzha district, was responsible for the appearance of the Ram idol at Babri Masjid in Ayodhya.

Born on September 11, 1907, KKK Nair was an officer of the Imperial Civil Service during the British rule, equivalent to the Indian Administrative Service. Nair, a 1930 batch ICS officer, married Shakuntala, a native of Dehradun, in 1946. Thus Shakuntala became Shakuntala Nair.

A staunch Hindu, Nair had personal connections with Hindu leaders like Pateshwari Prasad Singh, Mahad Digvijay Nath and Abhiram Das. The idea of seizing temples destroyed or taken over by foreigners and Mughal emperors at the behest of V.D. Savarkar was being widely discussed at the time. Nair assured all possible help and support in this endeavour. In 1945, KKK Nair met Guru Dutt Singh. Both were great devotees of Ram. Strong ties with Hindu leaders led to the decision to capture the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya.

When Pateshwari Pratap Singh founded the Ram Rajya Parishad in 1948, he made a special invitation to his friend Nair. In 1948, Guru Dutt Singh, a close friend of Nair, was appointed Faizabad City Magistrate. Making use of his personal influence, on June 1, 1949, Nair was appointed Deputy Commissioner and District Magistrate of Faizabad, including Ayodhya.

The duo reached an agreement to instal an idol of Lord Rama inside the Masjid. The Babri Masjid was guarded at night by a Hindu and a Muslim. Singh was able to entice the Hindu guard. Abdul Barkat, a Muslim hawaldar, was forced to cooperate on being threatened with death.

At 11 pm on December 22, 1949, a small Ram Lal (idol of Lord Rama), seven inches high, was erected inside the Babri Masjid by Pandit and wrestler Abhiram Das along with a few Hindu sannyasins. The two guards cooperated. News was widely spread that an idol of Lord Ram has appeared inside the Babri Masjid. Faizabad District Magistrate KKK Nair and Faizabad City Magistrate Guru Dutt Singh were with Das and others on that night. News spread that the idol of Lord Rama had appeared by itself. The next day, there was a huge crowd of Hindu devotees at the masjid. Crowds flocked to see the idol of Lord Rama inside the mosque. Nair’s wife Shakuntala Nair led the Shri Rama Bhajan in the mosque.

The Faizabad District Magistrate and the Faizabad City Magistrate delayed reporting the incident in Ayodhya to the authorities on time. The then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, through Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Govind Ballabh Pant, ordered the removal of the idol of Lord Rama from Babri Masjid and the handing over of the mosque to Muslims to avoid clashes in the area.

Ignoring the order of the then Prime Minister and the then Chief Minister, Nair closed the Babri Masjid using his power as the District Magistrate and brought it under receiver rule. Nair was suspended from service for disobeying the Prime Minister’s directive.

In the ensuing 1952 parliamentary elections, the All India Hindu Mahasabha won four seats. NC Chatterjee, father of late Communist leader and Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, was elected from Hooghly in West Bengal and Shakuntala Nair, wife of KKK Nair, was elected from Gonda in Uttar Pradesh. In 1962, Shakuntala was elected to the Uttar Pradesh Assembly. Faizabad City Magistrate Guru Dutt Singh had to resign after the Ayodhya mosque was closed due to the idol dispute. Singh resigned after KK Nair’s suspension and when he saw that action against him was imminent.

Nair, who returned to ICS service after a long legal battle, faced many challenges. Nair finally resigned from the service in 1952. Later, Nair served as an advocate in the Allahabad High Court. Guru Dutt Singh joined the Hindu Nationalist Party and became its leader. Later, he was the district chief of Jana Sangh in Faizabad.

Nair’s wife Shakuntala Nair was elected to the Lok Sabha for the second time in 1967 and the third time in 1971 from Kisharganj. In the Fourth Lok Sabha in 1967, KKK Nair was elected to Parliament from the Bahraich Lok Sabha constituency as a representative of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh. Thus the husband and wife have a history of becoming members of the fourth parliament together. KKK Nair passed away on September 7, 1977.

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