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Friday, Sep 02, 2005

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Supreme Court hearing today in Ayodhya case

Legal Correspondent

Ashok Singhal, Giriraj Kishore, Sadhvi Ritambara and others deny charges Dropping the conspiracy charge was a gross and shocking abuse of the due procedure of law

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court will hear petitions challenging the dropping of the "conspiracy" charge against Leader of the Opposition L.K. Advani in the Ayodhya demolition case on Friday before a Rae Bareily special court.

The apex court had in September 2003 issued notice to Mr. Advani, the Central Bureau of Investigation and others on two writ petitions filed by advocates Wajahat Ansari and C.M. Shukla challenging the dropping of the "conspiracy" charge in the supplementary charge sheet in May 2003 after 10 years. The petitioners have sought a direction for a joint trial against all the accused persons on the basis of the original charge sheet in the court of the special sessions judge, Lucknow.

The court will also hear a review petition filed by Mohd. Aslam alias Bhure seeking review of the apex court's November 2002 order permitting the trial to go on in a Rae Bareily court instead of at Lucknow. Mr. Bhure had also filed an application questioning the deletion of the "conspiracy" charge in the supplementary charge sheet.

Besides the CBI and the Uttar Pradesh Government, the petitioners have cited the former Union Human Resource Development Minister, Murli Manohar Joshi, Vishwa Hindu Parishad leaders Ashok Singhal, Giriraj Kishore, Sadhvi Ritambara and Vishnu Hari Dalmiya, Uma Bharti and Vinay Katiyar as respondents.

They said dropping the conspiracy charge was a gross and shocking abuse of the due procedure of law, and that the message sent across the country was that by delaying the trial it was easy to escape culpability by manipulating the procedure and deleting uncomfortable charges like "criminal conspiracy."

In their response, Mr. Singhal, Mr. Kishore, Mr. Katiyar and Sadhvi Ritambara said they had not committed any criminal act. While seeking dismissal of the petition, they said the CBI was well within its powers to drop the conspiracy charge after thorough investigation. They maintained that of the two First Information Reports filed in this case, crime no. 197 of 1992 was being tried in a Lucknow court and crime no. 198 of 1992 in a Rae Bareli court. These two trials could not be consolidated, they said.

Mr. Advani, Ms. Uma Bharti, Mr. Joshi and the CBI had not filed their response in the case so far.

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