CBI not to file fresh case from Liberhan report

The Central Bureau of Investigation has decided in principle not to file any fresh case from the Liberhan commission report which indicted 68 people including Bharatiya Janata Party stalwarts Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L K Advani for demolition of the Babri Masjid, but will go into details of some incidents as pointed out by the Union home ministry.

Recently, a meeting between CBI and home ministry officials was held during which the investigating agency said that prima facie there did not seem to be an iota of evidence to register a fresh case in the demolition case as it would not stand the legal scrutiny, officials privy to the meeting said.

However, there are some points that need to be probed further which would be done in due course of time, the officials said, adding that the report was still with the CBI and had not been returned to the Union home ministry.

The CBI team attending the meeting said there was no further evidence projected by the Liberhan commission that warranted a fresh case of a supplementary charge sheet and it would not be proper for the agency to take any action against those indicted in absence of any proof, the officials said.

Liberhan commission, which submitted its report after 17 years in 2009, had indicted 68 people including former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in the demolition case and had recommended fresh investigations into their role.

The report, besides terming Vajpayee as pseudo-secularist, had found all of them culpable for communal discord. However, the CBI officials at the meeting maintained there was a case which was at present under trial.

A charge sheet in this case had been filed after a detailed investigation against the conspirators in 1993 itself which includes names of Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Uma Bharti, Sadhvi Ritambhara, Ashok Singhal and Giriraj Kishore.

The government had handed over the Liberhan report to the CBI in November 24, 2009 asking the investigating agency to look into the leads generated, which purports to be fresh evidence, by the commission during the course of its investigation.