Babri mosque demolition: All 32 accused acquitted

A special court in India has acquitted all the 32 accused, including Bharatiya Janata Party veterans Lal Krishna Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi and Uma Bharti, in the 28-year-old case relating to the demolition of Babri Masjid in Ayodhya, saying "there is no conclusive proof" against them.

Special Judge SK Yadav pronounced the verdict in his court in Lucknow, capital city of India's most populous state of Uttar Pradesh, on Wednesday.

The case relates to the razing of the disputed structure in Ayodhya on December 6, 1992.

The 32 accused persons include former deputy prime minister Advani, former Union minister Joshi and Uma Bharti, former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Kalyan Singh, during whose tenure the structure was pulled down, besides Vinay Katiyar and Sadhvi Rithambara.

Champat Rai, the general secretary of the trust in charge of constructing the temple, is also among the accused.

The CBI, which went into the case, produced 351 witnesses and 600 documents as evidence before the court. Charges were framed against 48 people, but 17 had died during the course of the trial.

Over two dozen of 32 accused were present.

Advani (92), Joshi (86), Bharti (61), Singh (88), Nritya Gopal Das and Satish Pradhan were not present in court.