Justice should not only be done but should manifestly and undoubtedly be seen to be done, observed Lord Hewart, CJ of the Appellate court in the United Kingdom in 1923. Nothing can be more relevant than in the context of the CBI court exonerating on all the 32 leaders accused of hatching a conspiracy to bring down Babri Masjid on 6th December 1992.
Judge S K Yadav delivered the judgement running to 2300 pages with enclosures, on 3rd September stated that there was no conclusive evidence of any conspiracy by the accused and found them not guilty. The judge retired on the same day. The CBI produced 351 witnesses and 600 documents as evidence, charges were framed against 48 people, of which 16 had died in the intervening years of the trial. At one stage the conspiracy charges were dropped by the CBI court but had to be restored on the orders of the Supreme Court in 2017.
The government earlier appointed Justice (Retd.) M S Liberhan, who headed a commission of enquiry into the demolition. The commission sat for seventeen years, during which it got 48 extensions, what became the longest-running inquiry in Indian history. It submitted its report to then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on 30th June 2009.
The report minced no words in indicting senior leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) — from former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to Kalyan Singh, the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh at the time of the demolition — along with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), the Bajrang Dal, and the Shiv Sena.
The Commission, in its 998-page report, held, “the demolition took place in the presence of national and local leadership.” “Cadres of the RSS, Bajrang Dal, VHP, BJP and Shiv Sena along with their leaders were present of at the spot. They either actively or passively supported the demolition.”
The Special Court dismissed the case over the weak prosecution by the CBI, on the flimsiest grounds like the original newspaper cuttings cited as evidence were not provided, negatives were not attached with the photos cited as evidence, videotapes were not sealed, and the appropriate institutions did not authenticate the audio/video cassettes.
Whatever had happened was a travesty of justice and is a black day in the history of Indian judicial standing as an upright and a pillar of democracy. Those who agree with the CBI Court’s judgement must also accept that all those accused in bribery stings or even heinous crimes caught on the camera may henceforth heave a sigh of relief, as at some level of the trial the evidence can be safely rubbished.
My post has nothing to do with Ram, Babar, temple, Mosque, BJP or Congress. It merely laments over the weakening judicial system that may not augur well for any democracy, particularly not for the touted Ram Rajya!
Jai Shri Ram!
Sampath Kumar
Intrépide Voix
In pic: few of the “NOT GUILTY.”
