New Delhi, Nov 18: Reversing its earlier stand, Uttar Pradesh government today filed a supplementary affidavit in the Supreme Court stating that the demolition of Babri Masjid was "barbaric and unpardonable", but left it to the apex court to decide the legality of CBI's second chargesheet in the Rae Bareilly court dropping conspiracy charges against top BJP leaders, which had touched off a controversy. An affidavit filed last month by the Mulayam Singh Yadav government had defended the second chargesheet and affirmed that it was wrong to assume that any specific community or political party was involved in the conspiracy to demolish the masjid. Disclosure of this affidavit this week had generated criticism following which the state government had sacked the filing advocate, saying he had exceeded the brief.

In today's four-page affidavit, the state government's special secretary (home) Atul Kumar significantly recalled that the original chargesheet filed by CBI in the Ayodhya demolition case had stated that there was prima facie evidence of conspiracy against the accused. CBI's investigation had "revealed" that the masjid had been demolished due to "criminal conspiracy of some organisation," it said.

Bureau Report