The Central Bureau of Investigation on Monday moved a special court in Lucknow, urging it to summon former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Kalyan Singh in the Babri Masjid demolition case. The application may be taken up on Wednesday, PTI reported.
This came hours after Singh rejoined the Bharatiya Janata Party after completing his tenure as the governor of Rajasthan. The constitutional post provided him immunity from standing trial in the case. Singh accepted the party’s membership in the presence of the party’s Uttar Pradesh President Swatantra Dev Singh in Lucknow.
Singh, who quit the saffron party twice in the past due to differences with the party’s leadership, is the first governor of the western state after five decades to finish his entire five-year term. He was replaced as governor by Kalraj Mishra.
The return of the 87-year-old leader to Uttar Pradesh politics comes at a time when daily hearings of the Ayodhya dispute case are being conducted by the Supreme court.
Singh was the chief minister in 1992, when Babri Masjid was demolished. According to the CBI, he gave assurances to the National Integration Council that he would not permit the demolition but allegedly acted against it. Singh allegedly did not order the deployment of central forces to stop the razing of the mosque.
“Ayodhya is a sacred place,” ANI quoted him as saying. “Construction of Ram temple is a matter of devotion of crores of people. All political parties should make their stand clear before the people, if they are in favour of construction of Ram temple or against it.”
A special court had ruled in 1997 that prima facie it seemed Kalyan Singh was a “necessary participant in the criminal conspiracy”, according to PTI.
In April, 2017, the Supreme Court ordered the revival of criminal conspiracy charges against senior BJP leaders, including LK Advani, Uma Bharti and Murli Manohar Joshi. The top court also clarified that Singh, who was then the governor of Rajasthan, could not face trial because Article 361 of Constitution provides president of India and governors immunity in criminal and civil cases.
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