Babri demolition case verdict live updates: CBI to decide on challenging verdict

Area cordoned off and heavy security deployed outside the premises of Lucknow HC.

For over a year, the judge has been on an extension on his position.

Judge set to retire after verdict.

Security tighetened around Special CBI court.

Judgement Day

The accused who passed away pending trial...

Vinay Katiyar, Dharamdas, Ramvilas Vedanti, Lallu Singh, Champat Rai, and Pawan Pandey reach Lucknow.

LK Advani, MM Joshi, Uma Bharti, Kalyan Singh, Nritya Gopal Das would not be present in the court when Babri demolition verdict is pronounced, as per defence lawyer KK Mishra.

Timeline of the Babri Masjid demolition case

Babri Masjid demolition case

DGP (headquarters) will monitor sensitive districts like Varanasi, Prayagraj, Ayodhya, Kanpur, Muzaffarnagar, Shamli, Aligarh and Mathura.

Exactly 10 years ago -- on September 30, 2010 -- a three-judge bench of the Allahabad high court had delivered the verdict in the Ayodhya title suit, which was later challenged in Supreme Court. On Tuesday evening, Lucknow police commissioner Sujeet Pandey visited the court premises to take stock of the situation. “We are prepared. Special teams and routes have been chalked out to ferry the accused,” Pandey told TOI.

Nritya Gopal, Vedanti, Bansal, Dharmadas and Pradhan are facing charges under Section 295 of IPC in addition to Sections 147, 149, 153(a), 153(b) and 505(1)(b).

In case BJP MPs Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, Lallu Singh and Sakshi Maharaj get two-year or a longer imprisonment term, their parliament membership may be in question. All the accused, if convicted, can move the high court to challenge the verdict.

With the Supreme Court setting August 31 as the deadline and later extending it by a month for the CBI court to give its verdict, the trial court started day-to-day hearing to complete the task in time. The central agency produced 351 witnesses and 600 documents as evidence before the court. Charges were framed against 48 people, but 17 have died during the course of trial.

Seventeen named accused, including Bal Thackeray, Ashok Singhal, Mahant Avaidyanath, Giriraj Kishore and Vijayaraje Scindia passed away during the course of the trial.

If convicted, accused saffron veterans like LK Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Uma Bharti, Vinay Katiyar, Sadhvi Ritambhara, Mahant Nritya Gopal Das, Champat Rai Bansal, Ram Vilas Vedanti, Dharmadas and Dr Satish Pradhan would face maximum imprisonment up to five years.

A high alert has been sounded across the state for Wednesday. While policemen in civil clothes will be on guard in Ayodhya, 2,000 cops will be deployed at the building that houses the “Ayodhya Prakaran Court” in the Old High Court building at Kaiserbagh here. Rapid Action Force (RAF) personnel have been stationed in 25 sensitive districts.