Babri ghost returns to haunt Advani

Abhishek Bajpai
Rae Bareli, Mar 26 (PTI) The ghost of Babri Masjid
demolition returned to haunt top Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)
leader L K Advani on Friday when a senior woman police officer
deposed in a Special Court that he gave a provocative speech
in Ayodhya moments before the mosque was demolished by sangh
parivar activists.

"On December 6, 1992, Advani made a spirited speech from
Ram Katha Kunj manch (dais), barely 150-200 metres from the
disputed site which charged the people.
"He repeatedly said that the temple would be constructed
at the same site," Anju Gupta, a 1990-batch IPS officer, said
in her two-hour-long deposition before Chief Judicial
Magistrate Gulab Singh in the court from which public was kept
away.
Gupta, who was the personal security officer of Advani in
Ayodhya on the fateful day on December 6, 1992, appeared as a
prosecution witness in the Special CBI Court in the case in
which he and BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi, Uma Bharti and
other sangh parivar leaders have been accused of inciting
violence that led to the demolition.
Now posted with the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) in
Delhi, she said Joshi, Bharti, another BJP leader Vinay
Katiyar and Sadhvi Rithambhara also made provocative speeches.
"When the structure was being demolished, the leaders on
the dais looked happy. They hugged each other, sweets were
being distributed and there was an atmosphere of celebration
while they were provoking 'kar sevaks' to demolish the
structure.
"Uma Bharti and Sadhvi Rithambhara also hugged each other
and congratulated Advani and Joshi. None of the leaders
present at the spot made any effort to stop the demolition,"
Gupta said.
Advani, a former deputy prime minister, was discharged in
the case in 2002 after conspiracy charge was dropped. But,
three years later the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High
Court reinstated the charges of intentionally provoking people
into rioting, arson and indulging in rioting with intent to
create disorder as well as creating discord among communities.
Gupta, who was then posted as Assistant Superintendent of
Police in Faizabad, was on special duty entrusted with the
security of Advani.
Recalling the sequence of events on the fateful day, she
said Advani and other leaders had reached Ayodhya on December
5 night. The next morning they went to Ram Katha Kunj, a
single-storeyed building, whose roof was being used as a dais
by the leaders to address 'kar sevaks'. (MORE) PTI AVA
SDE


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