COURT RAPS CBI FOR MISSING BABRI FILES

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) submitted the final report on the probe to trace the 23 missing files of Babri Masjid before the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court, which rapped the premier investigating agency for leaving key questions unanswered. Raising questions over the investigation of the country’s premier agency, the Special Bench comprising Justices S Rafat Alam, Sudhir Agarwal and D V Sharma reserved its order on the inquiry report. In the report, the CBI reportedly said it had failed to trace the missing documents which included a telex from the country’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru to the state government for removal of idols installed in the Babri Mosque in 1949 and the correspondence between the Uttar Pradesh government and the then Faizabad District Magistrate. “Earlier, out of 23, CBI could trace only 8 files while three were shown to be weeded out. The mystery on the remaining 12 still remains,” said Jafaryab Jilani, counsel of the Sunni Wakf Board. “The CBI had also told the court that the death of Subhash Bhan Sadh, Officer on Special Duty in the Communalism Control Cell of the UP Home Department, was an accident,” said Jilani.  Sadh, who was reportedly carrying some files that are now missing, had died after falling off a train in 2000 while he was on way to Delhi to depose before the Liberhan Commission that probed the mosque demolition.