Babri Case Judge Who Acquitted All Accused Made Up-Lokayukta

The Lokayukta is an anti-corruption watchdog, comprising four officers from non-political backgrounds.

Retired Judge Surendra Kumar Yadav

(Image: The Quint)

Retired judge Surendra Kumar Yadav has taken oath as the deputy Lokayukta, also known as Up-Lokayukta in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly on Monday, 13 April.

This comes a year after Yadav acted as a judge of a special CBI court on 30 September 2020, and acquitted all 32 accused in the Babri Masjid demolition case, 28 years after the incident took place. Among the accused acquitted, over lack of evidence, are LK Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi, and Uma Bharti.

The official statement, as per PTI said:

“Yadav was appointed as third ‘Up-Lokayukta’ by the Governor on 6 April. On Monday, 13 April, Yadav was administered oath by Lokayukta Sanjay Mishra in the presence of other senior officers.”

The Lokayukta is an anti-corruption watchdog, comprising four officers from non-political background, which is one Lokayukta, and three Up-Lokayuktas who are part of a statutory body to probe into cases on government officials around corruption, abuse of power, and similar profile cases.

Yadav’s term will be of eight years. Shambu Singh Yadav was appointed on 4 August 2016, and Dinesh Kumar Singh was appointed on 6 June, 2020 as the other two Up-Lokayuktas, reported PTI.

While the Ayodhya title dispute was settled by the Supreme Court in November 2019, the criminal case against BJP, RSS, VHP leaders and karsevaks for demolishing the mosque on 6 December 1992 carried on, with the verdict being finally declared on 30 September.

(With inputs from PTI)