New Delhi: Seventeen years after it was set up by the then prime minister P V Narasimha Rao to inquire into the 1992 demolition of Babri Masjid in Ayodhya, the Liberhan Commission submitted its report to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday.
Retired Justice M S Liberhan submitted the report in the presence of Home Minister P Chidambaram to the Prime Minister.
The contents of the report were not immediately known.
The Prime Minister has now forwarded the report to the Home Ministry.
Meanwhile, speaking to NDTV about the delay in the submission of the report, Justice Liberhan said, "Reasons for the delay is contained in the report and I won't discuss it till the report is made public."
Reacting to the report, former BJP leader Uma Bharti, who was in Ayodhya on the day of the demolition, said that the party should come clean over the issue.
"Babri report should be published and BJP should come clean over it," said Bharti.
"I am not apologetic at all, I am willing to be hanged for my role. I want Ram Temple, but I didn't want the mosque to be destroyed that way," she added.
She also said that it was difficult to pinpoint people responsible for mosque demolition.
Meanwhile, Congress spokesperson Manish Tiwary has said that the government will need some time to take action on the report.
The probe by the Liberhan Commission is the longest-running probe, and it cost the government around Rs 8 crore.
The panel was set up just two weeks after the demolition took place, and was granted 48 extensions since then.
The panel, in the course of the probe, had questioned Lal Krishna Advani, P V Narasimha Rao, Kalyan Singh, Murli Manohar Joshi, Uma Bharti and Mulayam Singh.