By TCN Staff Reporter,
Lucknow: The trial in the criminal case of Babri Masjid demolition began with the recording of statement of the then SHO Priyamvada Nath Shukla on Monday by Special Judge (Ayodhya Issue) in Lucknow. Shukla, who was the SHO, on December 6, 1992 had lodged the FIR regarding the demolition of the mosque at Ram Janam Bhoomi police station in Ayodhya. The court has framed the charges in crime number 197/92 u/s 153A, 153B, 295, 332, 395 and 120B of Indian Penal Code.
The court has also slated August 31 as the next date listed for recording Shukla’s statement by the defence lawyer. The CBI, which has filed the charge-sheet related to the issue also filed an application on Monday demanding the directives from the court for the attachment of the property of the absconder, Laxmi Narain Mahatyagi. The CBI further pleaded before the court that directives may be issued for pasting the attachment notice at tehsil, panchayat, railway station besides directing the revenue officials to locate Mahatyagi’s immovable assets.
Earlier, the Special Court (Ayodhya Issue) of district session court in Lucknow on August 20 had framed charges against 23 accused including the then District Magistrate (DM) RN Srivastava, Sakshi Maharaj, Uma Bharti, Murli Manohar Joshi, Brij Bhushan Saran Singh and others. The list of accused also includes Pawan Pandey, Jai Bhagwan Singh Goyal, Om Prakash Pandey, Sriprakash Sharma, Jaibhan Singh Pawaiyya, Dharmendra Singh Gurjar, Vinay Kumar Rai, Lalloo Singh, Ramji Gupta, Kamlesh Tripathi, Santosh Dubey, Gandhi Yadav, Hargovind Singh, Vijay Bahadur Singh, Navin Bhai Shukla, Ramesh Pratap Singh and Acharya Dharmendra Dev.