Court asks CBI submit a report on missing files of Babri land dispute case

Lucknow, July 15 (ANI): Taking a serious view of the missing files related to Babri mosque land dispute, the Lucknow Bench of Allahabad High Court in on Wednesday directed the Central Bureau of Investigation to investigate and submit a time bound report on the issue.

The direction asked the CBI to present a time bound report, an interim report by August 25 and a full report within two months.

The 23 missing documents include letters and a telegram from then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru that could prove helpful in the case.

"The state government had sent a legal provision to the Central government that the incident be investigated by the CBI. The court had been notified yesterday (Tuesday). The court has today said that the CBI present a time bound report to the court. It has to submit an interim report initially and a full report within two months," said D.K. Upadhyay, standing council for the Uttar Pradesh government.

The court also directed that if any person attempted in any way to obstruct the CBI's investigations, the court should be notified immediately. Such an attempt would be considered an offence or 'contempt of court'.

"The CBI director has also been told by the court that if any officer or any person tries to obstruct the investigations, the court should be informed immediately," said Zafaryab Gilani, convener of the Babri Masjid Action Committee.

Meanwhile, the next hearing of the case has been fixed for August 24, 2009.

The issue of the 23 missing files in the 74-year-old case of the Ramjanmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute had come to light when the state government had recently filed an FIR in the case.

A government official said to be carrying the files to submit them to the Liberhan Commission, the one man Commission probing the 1992 demolition of Babri mosque at Ayodhya, had died under mysterious circumstances years ago. (ANI)