With no equipment for video-conferencing, court says CBI can produce witnesses in person

New Delhi: To ensure that there is no delay in concluding the trial in the Babri Masjid demolition case, a special CBI court has given the liberty to the Central Bureau of Investigation to produce three witnesses in person for cross examination, as demanded by the counsels for the accused. The court in Lucknow gave this direction on Monday, after it recorded that the UP administration had not installed the equipment required to conduct the trial via video-conferencing despite an instruction given on May 14.

The court said it had sent a reminder to the authorities to immediately install the apparatus. Meanwhile, CBI can either get the cross examination of the three witnesses done via videoconferencing or produce them in person in the court. The court has fixed May 20-22 for cross examination of the witnesses - Madhurima Misra (on May 20), Farhad Abbas (May 21) and Jagat Bahadur (May 22). After the completion of cross examination, it will commence questioning of all the 32 accused. ET reported on Monday that the special CBI judge, SK Yadav, had asked the UP chief secretary (administration) and chief secretary (justice) to provide the equipment to conduct the proceedings through videoconferencing in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Supreme Court on May 8 told the special court to conclude the trial and pronounce its verdict by August 31, and it doesn’t want to fall in contempt of SC directions. Top BJP leaders including LK Advani, MM Joshi and Uma Bharti, as well as VHP leader Champat Rai Bansal, among others, are accused in the case. The special CBI court is located in the Kaiserbagh locality of Lucknow, which is a Covid-19 hotspot as per available information.