1st LD Writethru: Indian Supreme Court orders 13 top BJP leaders to face trial in mosque demolition case

India's Supreme Court on Wednesday restored criminal conspiracy charge against 13 top leaders of ruling Hindu nationalist Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) in demolition of the 16th century mosque -- Babri Masjid, officials said.

The court allowed restoration of the charge against 13 people including L K Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Uma Bharti (currently a federal minister for water resources), Vinay Katiyar, Sadhvi Ritambara, Satish Pradhan, Champat Rai Bansal and Late Giriraj Kishore and other unknown party supporters on the Central Bureau of Investigation's (CBI) appeal in the case.

CBI, India's premier investigating agency, has been investigating the case since the demolition of mosque in Ayodhya town of India's northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh in 1992.

Advani, the senior leader of BJP along with his party colleagues were charged with making inflammatory speeches that motivated thousands of party workers (locally called karsevaks) to pull down the mosque.

Currently two sets of cases relating to the demolition of the mosque are being heard by courts in Uttar Pradesh. While the trial for first set involved unnamed volunteers (BJP supporters) is taking place in a Lucknow court, the second set of cases relate to the BJP leaders is in a Raebareli court.

The Supreme Court ordered proceedings should be completed in two years to deliver a final verdict.

A former BJP leader, Kalyan Singh, presently the governor of Rajasthan, will be tried in the case after his term ends. Singh was chief minister of Uttar Pradesh at the time of demolition of Babri Masjid.

The demolition of Babri Masjid was carried out following a high charged movement for the construction Ram temple was led by Advani. The BJP leaders want the temple to be built on the same spot where the masjid was constructed by the Mughals during their reign.

The CBI in its plea has maintained that BJP leaders who made fiery speeches on a stage near the mosque on the day it was razed were part of the deadly plan and criminal conspiracy to bring down the mosque.

The demolition of Babri Masjid triggered a countrywide communal riots between Hindus and Muslims and claimed over 2,000 lives, mostly of Muslims.

In 2010, the Allahabad high court disagreed with the CBI about criminal conspiracy charges for the BJP leaders, after which CBI had appealed against the high court's decision in the top court.

Many Hindus believe that the mosque was built over the birthplace of Hindu god -- Lord Ram.

The Supreme Court has been hearing the petition on the dispute to decide to whom the site belongs. Endit