Timeline of the Babri Masjid demolition case

The verdict by a special court in the Babri Masjid demolition case comes 28 years after 'karsevaks' razed the 16th-century mosque and almost a year after the Supreme Court settled the land case in favour of a Ram temple at the disputed Ayodhya site.

Babri Masjid verdict live on DH

A timeline:

** According to the Hindus, Mughal emperor Babar's general Mir Baki had built the Babri Masjid at Ayodhya after demolishing a temple in 1528. Hindus consider it as the birth place of Lord Rama.

** It was claimed that the first incident of communal violence over the structure had happened in 1853. Nirmohi Akhara had claimed ownership of the structure claiming that it had been built after demolishing a Hindu temple.

** A wall was erected by the then British regime in 1859 before the Masjid. While the Hindus worshipped outside the wall, the Muslims offered prayers inside the same.

** A Hindu seer Mahant Raghubar Das approached the Faizabad district court in 1885 seeking permission for construction of a Ram Temple at the site.

** It was claimed that the minarets of the Mosque had been destroyed in communal violence in 1934.

** In 1949 Hindus allegedly installed idols of Ram Lala inside the disputed structure and claimed its ownership. The place was locked.

** A district court ordered opening of the locks in 1986.

** Senior BJP leader L.K.Advani undertook a Rathyatra from Somnath to Ayodhya in 1990. He was stopped in Bihar and placed under arrest.

** Five karsevaks were killed, when police opened fire to prevent them from marching toward the disputed structure on October 30, 1990.

** Over one lakh karsevaks assembled in Ayodhya and demolished the mosque on December 6, 1992. Communal clashes broke out at different places in the country.

** Two FIRs were lodged at Ram Janmabhoomi police station in Ayodhya after the demolition. The first FIR was against unnamed karsevaks while the second was against eight senior BJP and Vishwa Hindu Parishad leaders, including L.KAdvani, Murli Manohar Joshi, VHP president Ashok Singhal and others.

** The case was handed over to the CBI. A special court was et up to hear the case. The UP government through a notification handed over the investigation of the first FIR to CBI. The cases were heard at Raebareli and Lucknow.

** CBI clubbed the two FIRs and filed a composite chargesheet in the matter.

** The Allahabad high court quashed the charges against Adavani and others on the ground that the UP government had failed to issue notification handing over the second FIR to the CBI.

** The supreme court later, on a petition by the CBI, clubbed the two FIRs and ordered a joint trial at Lucknow. It also revived the conspiracy charges against the BJP leaders.

** In 2017, the apex court ordered daily hearing of the matter and extended the tenure of the special CBI judge S.K.Yadav by a year till September 30.

** The Special CBI court started daily hearing of the matter. The SC directed him to pronounce the verdict by September 30.

** As many as 351 people deposed in the case and 600 documents were introduced. 17 accused died during the pendency of the trial.
** Court reserved judgement on September one.

** All 32 accused were acquitted by the court on September 30.