The Supreme Court (SC) on Friday sought responses from BJP leader LK Advani, Shiv Sena chief Balasaheb Thackeray and 19 other BJP and VHP leaders in connection with a CBI plea that has sought the restoration of ‘criminal conspiracy’ charges against them with regard to the 1992 Babri Masjid demolition.
Last May, the Allahabad high court (HC) dismissed the CBI plea seeking revival of criminal conspiracy charges against BJP, VHP, Shiv Sena and VHP leaders. In response to a petition filed by the CBI challenging that order, a bench of justices VS Sirpurkar and TS Thakur sought to know the stand of the leaders and issued notices to them. They have been asked to file their replies within a month.
Earlier, solicitor-general Gopal Subramanium contended that last year’s HC ruling was erroneous. The HC had upheld the trial court verdict that dropped conspiracy charges against Advani and others, including Uma Bharti, Kalyan Singh, MM Joshi, Ashok Singhal, Giriraj Kishore, Vinay Katiyar, VH Dalmiya, Sadhvi Rithambara and Mahant Avaidya Nath.
