A special court hearing the Babri Mosque demolition case Tuesday ordered the then Faizabad district magistrate and some leaders of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to appear before it for framing of charges.
The VHP and the BJP leaders are facing charges of criminal conspiracy behind the Dec 6, 1992 demolition of the 16th century mosque.
In his order, Judge Virendra Kumar directed then district magistrate R.N. Srivastava, BJP MP Brij Bhushan Saran Singh and VHP leaders Acharya Dharmendra, Swami Sakhi and Pawan Pande to appear before it July 13.
Earlier, the Allahabad High Court had dismissed a revision petition by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for prosecution of BJP veteran L.K. Advani and seven other key party leaders against whom another special trial court in Rae Bareli had dropped the criminal charges.
The demolition of the mosque had sparked off a nationwide communal frenzy, leaving thousands of people dead.
