Defence Seems Bent Upon Delaying Babri Mosque Demolition Trial: CBI Court

The special CBI court holding the Babri mosque demolition trial on Wednesday expressed its exasperation over the defence counsel's failure to submit their written arguments to the court despite twice being granted time for it.

It appears the defence wants to delay the conclusion of trial as it has failed to submit its written arguments despite being given time for it on two earlier occasions, Special Judge S K Yadav said in a terse remark.

While making his exasperation clear, Judge Yadav rejected the defence counsel's requests to grant them time till August 31 for filing written arguments and directed them to ensure filing the same by Thursday.

The court had earlier granted the defence time on August 21 and 24.

The prosecuting agency CBI has already filed its 400-page written arguments.

The court is constrained to speed up proceedings as the Supreme Court has set September-end as the deadline for it to pronounce its judgment in the case.

The court said there are volumes of documents to consider while writing the judgment and as such it would take considerable time to write it but the way the defence is seeking time again and again, it seems it wants to delay the proceedings.

There are 32 accused in the case of the demolition of the 16th-century mosque in Ayodhya in December 1992.

They include former deputy prime minister LK Advani, former UP chief minister Kalyan Singh, BJP leaders MM Joshi, Uma Bharti, Vinay Katiar, Sadhvi Ritabmhara and Sakshi Maharaj besides Ram Teerth Kshetra Trust secretary Champat Rai.

The trial is at the verge of conclusion. This is at present at the stage of arguments. Prosecuting agency CBI has submitted its arguments which the defence counsel have to rebut by filing their own written arguments.

Once the arguments stage is over, the court would deliver judgment.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)