In the recent past, judgements from our courts have often surprised me. Latest case is the judgement on the Babri Majid demolition case. Lets look at the charge of criminal conspiracy. As per our Indian Penal Code, there are 2 necessary conditions which need to be proved beyond doubt to establish criminal conspiracy 1) Agreement - There needs to be an explicit prior agreement between parties to commit a criminal act. Our law clearly states that mere intent is not enough but an agreement needs to be proved. After 25 years of investigations, all we have are eye witness accounts of speeches made by Advani and others. These speeches at best indicate an intent to build a temple and nothing more. After 25 years with many eye witnesses dead and fading memory, it is impossible to prove prior agreement. 2) Plan or Design - The second necessary condition to prove criminal conspiracy is the existence of a plan or design which was pre-agreed by the people who have come ...