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Lucknow: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has dropped the charge of criminal conspiracy against Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani, Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister M M Joshi and other Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders in the Ayodhya demolition case in a special CBI court in Rae Bareilly, counsel for one of the accused said on July 19.

CBI, the investigating agency, did not find any charge against the eight accused under section 120-B of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) – criminal conspiracy – and therefore it has dropped the charge against them in the case, the counsel for one of the accused Mridul Rakesh said.

The charge was dropped in a supplementary chargesheet filed by CBI on May 31 against L K Advani, Joshi, Uma Bharti and five others, he said.

Initially, section 120-B was not included in the case filed against the eight accused on the basis of First Information Reports (FIRs), number 197 and 198/92, registered on December 6, 1992 after the demolition of Babri mosque, but during the course of its investigations the CBI had included the section in the combined chargesheet.

"Now with the dropping of criminal conspiracy charge from the CBI supplementary chargesheet against the eight accused, the only charges that remain against them are under sections 153-A, 153-B (spreading communal frenzy) 147, 149, (rioting/committing a crime) and 505 (creating ill will).

PTI