CBI to probe cash flow during Babri demolition

Neeraj Chauhan, TNN | May 23, 2011, 02.50am IST

NEW DELHI: The CBI will probe the 'cash flow' that went into the conspiracy to demolish Babri masjid in December 1992 and also look into roles of at least 10 more people in the planning and execution, even as the agency has in-principle decided not to file any fresh case on the basis of the Liberhan Commission's findings.

The decision was taken during a meeting between officials of the CBI and home ministry last week when the agency expressed its inability to file any fresh case in absence of 'evidence'. It, however, agreed to look into details of some incidents as pointed out by the commission, admitting that the effort may lead it to those who had financed the conspiracy.

"We will have to examine what action can be taken against people who collected money or transferred money and whether the money was accounted for or not," said a CBI official.

Though the agency had earlier asked the Income Tax department to provide details of the cash flow, the trail went cold when the department expressed its inability to dig out old records. "The I-T department has said they will check the records all over again and this has raised hopes of some leads," the CBI official said.

The home ministry, which handed over the commission's report to the CBI in November 2009, is also learnt to have agreed on the agency's point that there was a need to investigate the money trail used for demolition of the disputed structure and who was given what responsibility during the demolition.

The agency has indicated that it has some details of the roles of at least 10 persons for their involvement at one stage or the other. These 10 will be in addition to those who had already been chargesheeted by CBI like L K Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, Uma Bharti, Sadhvi Rithambhara, Ashok Singhal and Giriraj Kishore.

The commission, which submitted its report after nearly 17 years of its constitution, indicted 68 people including senior BJP leaders Atal Bihari Vajpayee and L K Advani for demolition of the disputed structure. It had also recommended fresh investigations into their roles. The report, besides terming Vajpayee as a pseudo-secularist, had found all of them culpable for communal discord.

The CBI analysed the Liberhan report for almost one-and-a-half years and told the ministry that it has not found any fresh evidence on role of persons named by the panel but agreed to further probe the 'cash trail'.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/CBI-to-probe-cash-flow-during-Babri-demolition/articleshow/8520212.cms