Our correspondent
LUCKNOW: A special court here on Tuesday framed charges against 23 accused in Babri Masjid demolition case. The court will commence the formal trial in the case from August 23.
Special judge (Ayodhya Prakaran) Virendra Kumar has framed charges against Jai Bhagwan Goel, Acharya Dharmendra Deo, Ravindra Nath Shrivastava, Pawan Pandey, Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, Ram Chandra Khatri, Sudhir Kakkar, Amar Nath Goel, Santosh Dubey, Prakash Sharma, Jai Bhan Singh Pawaiya, Dharmendra Singh Gurjar, Vinay Kumar Roy, Lallu Singh, Ram Ji Gupta, Om Prakash Pandey, Kamlesh Tripathi, Gandhi Yadav, Har Govind Singh, Vijay Bahadur Singh, Naveen Bhai Shukla, Ramesh Pratap Singh, and Maharaj Swami Sakshi.
The court also initiated proceedings for attachment of property of another accused Laxmi Narayan Mahatyagi as he did not appear before the court. The CBI had filed chargesheet in the case on August 27, 1993.
Charges against top Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leaders, including L.K. Advani, Uma Bharti and Vinay Katiyar, were already dropped by the high court few years ago.
After demolition of Babri mosque in 1992, an FIR was lodged against unknown kar sewaks. A second FIR was also lodged in this connection. The CBI investigated both the matters and filed a consolidated chargesheet. A case is being conducted before a special court in Rae Bareli whereas this case is being heard in Lucknow.