New Delhi, July 22: Seeking to step up pressure for resignation of Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani and HRD Minister Murli Manohar Joshi on the issue of "dropping" of conspiracy charge against them in Babri Masjid demolition case, the Congress today widened the sweep of its attack targeting the CBI for its "guilty silence" on the subject. "The CBI has off late become adept at planning leaks in the press but strangely it has been maintaining guilty silence on the issue. It is this studied silence of CBI which gives the fact that it has something to hide in the Babri Masjid demolition case", party spokesman S Jaipal Reddy told reporters here.

Rejecting government's plea that the matter was sub-judice and cannot be debated in Parliament, he said the government was "deliberately prevaricating and obfuscating the issue".

"We are not seeking to consider the matter which is in court. We are seeking CBI role in the chargesheet filed in 1993 and 1996 to which it has turned a blind eye and on the basis of which it has framed chargesheet against Advani, M M Joshi and others", he said.

The CBI has "turned a blind eye" to that part of the chargesheet which named them under Section 120 (B), Reddy said.
Accusing CBI of taking note of only the technical defect in the chargesheet, which was curable, Reddy said it was clear to the naked eye that the investigating agency under pressure "is letting them (Advani, Joshi and others) go scot free. This could happen as Advani continues to be the home minister".

Bureau Report