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 together to commit the criminal offence. The law clearly states that all major components of this plan or design should have been known and agreed to by the people planning the criminal act. After 25 years, we still do not know how the Babri Majid was brought down. Given the size, strength and scale of the structure of Babri, its not possible for a crowd with bare hands and farm tools to bring down a large structure and clear the land in 5 hours. With little knowledge on how the structure was brought down , no one can prove that there was a pre-agreed plan or design.
There is 0% chance of a conviction in this case.
The court further gave a 2 year time limit for the trail to conclude. Two years from today will be April 2019, when campaign for 2019 elections will be at its peak.
This judgement will be a great gift for the BJP in consolidating and uniting its Hindu vote bank.
So what was the point of the judgement......
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