Senior BJP leaders LK Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi and Union Minister Uma Bharati appeared in the special CBI court in Lucknow. The court has said last week that the leaders would not be exempted from appearing in court in person. “I don’t consider myself an accused…There was no conspiracy, it was an open movement like it happened during the Emergency,” minister Uma Bharati told media before her appearance in court.

The Supreme Court has directed last month that the leaders including Advani, Joshi and Bharati would face trial for conspiracy charges in the case. It also transferred another case of hate speech from Rae Bareli to a Lucknow special court so that both hearings can be done simultaneously.

The BJP leaders are facing trial for making speeches near the mosque which allegedly instigated the karsevaks, or volunteers, to raze the structure on December 6, 1992.

The Supreme Court also gave a month to frame fresh charges against Advani and a dozen other leaders and directed the special court to deliver its verdict within two years after daily hearings.

The conspiracy charges against 89-year-old Advani was dropped by a special CBI court in 2001 which was later upheld by the Allahabad High Court in 2010.

Restoring the conspiracy charges on April 19, the Supreme Court termed the demolition of the 16th-century mosque a “crime” which shook the “secular fabric of the Constitution”.

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