The special CBI court’s verdict in the Babri Masjid demolition case has brought an end to a 28-year-old chapter of my life. I only wish it had been authored differently, and that the end had not left me confused.
As a photojournalist with The Pioneer, I know what I saw on 5 December 1992 in Ayodhya. My Canon (camera) was witness to the rehearsal that was undertaken by the kar sevaks and I had guarded the negatives like my babies, all through the years. I was scared that the slightest of moisture would destroy the negatives wrapped in polythene. My Canon was witness to everything — my pictures proving beyond doubt that the demolition of the Babri Masjid on 6 December 1992 was a calculated, meticulously planned exercise.
I was positive on my ‘negatives’
I remember the stinging slap my wife gave me, on a winter day many years ago, when our house was ransacked by robbers. While she had shed tears for the jewellery that the robbers had taken away, I had rushed in to see whether my negatives were safe. That’s how precious they were to me.
All I am left with now, after years of numerous court appearances, is confusion, questions and the dilemma of how to make sense of my depositions in the court of special CBI judge Surendra Kumar Yadav, and my interactions with him.
Also read: Why Babri Masjid judgment and Hathras gang rape case are examples of inadequate justice
A day before the verdict
On Tuesday, 29 September 2020, a day before the verdict was to be given, I woke up at 3:30 am to catch an early morning flight to Lucknow with ThePrint’s senior assistant editor Ananya Bhardwaj.
We landed in Lucknow, and headed straight to Surendra Yadav’s chambers, only to be told that the chances of getting an interview with him were between slim and non-existent. His security initially refused to even pass on my visiting card to him, telling us he was busy. He doesn’t have the time to even talk to his wife, let alone answer the phone or entertain pesky journalists, we were told. But I persisted and requested his security to at least hand over my visiting card to the judge. Minutes later, we were ushered in.
Happy to see us, Yadav was gracious enough to give us some exclusive time. He told us how he had been burning the midnight oil, studying the voluminous evidence and writing the judgment.
He also surprised me by producing a business card that I had given him about two years ago when I was working with The Indian Express. He took it out of his wallet to show me. I was humbled to know he remembered me.
Also read: Babri case gave me sleepless nights, glad it reached its logical conclusion, judge Yadav says
The judgment day
The next morning, on 30 September — the day the verdict was to be announced — Yadav gave us some more exclusive time as he called us over to his residence, before leaving for court. We met and chatted with his family, who also told us how hard the judge had been working on the case. We were offered ladoos when Yadav learnt it was my birthday. The family, too, wished me well.
I had the opportunity to click a few pictures of him — the candid brief moments as we followed his car on the way to the court. Memories of the time spent in court appearances flooded my mind. Yadav had presided over the hearings when defence lawyers had gone out of their way to discredit and humiliate me. They had called me a fake photographer who was out to make a quick buck. Yadav had been witness to all those moments and my old visiting card in his wallet was, for me, proof of my professional standing. I had felt validated by that one gesture of him. It had filled me with hope. A hope that India would be redeemed of that 6 December stain, when the composite fabric of our country was shredded by a perilous political campaign.
Minutes later, he announced the judgment, dismissing my pictures, among others, by pointing to a lack of evidence, and ruled that the demolition wasn’t planned, acquitting all 32 accused in the case. My work had not passed muster in the eyes of the judge. My negatives, for all their worth, were consigned to the bin of history by the judgment.
Praveen Jain is the National Photo Editor of ThePrint. He had covered the demolition of the Babri Masjid and was a witness in its criminal case. Views are personal.
InshaAllah fir se masjid bnegi chahe abhi ye 100 salo ke baad par Muslims kabhi apni Masjid nhi bulega ye to India ki badkismati hai ki gaddaro ko High court supreme court ki kursi mili .
Dude. Please keep your stupid remarks to yourself. Indulge in conversation which are beneficial to everyone. Don’t spark hearted !! P lease. Just coz troll do this, we don’t have to behave the same way..
In my opinion, Babri Masjid was a case of hindus claiming the land as theirs for constructing a temple.
Muslims defending it should have given it to them as a gesture of goodwill and to maintain peaceful relationship in the first place itself. But the representative mplb etc were adamant. They lost it shamefully.
Peaceful co existence is the most important in this country. Kashi, Mathura and all disputed places should be given to hindus as a gesture of goodwill without litigations.
Mr MOHAMMAD SHAKEEL SIDDIQUI:
What does the BJP IT cell pay you for each of the pathetic comments you write ?
Maan, you can still submit these photos during the appeal proceedings when it is going to be heard in the Supreme Court. If only you really Have Any……And What kind of journalist you are……Assuming that the Judge would pronounce judgement the way you expected it, just because he offered ladoos to you when you visited his home. By the way, majority of the Indians pronounce The Print as The Pimp
Does this man really think we are all so naive as to believe that in this electronic age, a professional photographer didn’t know how to preserve his precious photos ?
Mr Sundararaman: Digital photography started in earnest in the late 90s when both the software as well as the electronics in cameras matured. In 1992, people mostly took traditional photographs that delivered negatives that were later printed.
Rajiya Sabha ki seat pakki,lagta hai sir rss walo ke hi comment dikhaye jaate hai
This is new independence. Accept it or not.
Jai Chand and Mir Jafar still exist in this era in different way and they also find the प्लेटफार्म और plate farm is provided to them for propeganda . What he want to say. People needs aware of these type of element especially Hindus .
Do you also have photos of genocide of Kashmiri pandits or when karsevaks were burnt alive in Godhra ?? As no photojounalist seems to have them supposedly….Are you not ashamed that for a few bucks you are ready to sell your soul… or i doubt you rather have it?
Pravin Jain ,
Your photos reveal the moral resurgence of Hinduism which is a fitting reply to the invasion and demolition of ancient Hindu temples by the ruthless Islamic rulers.
History will repeat itself. Any religion should establish good aesthetic history but not a bad history
Mr Subramanian:
You bray:
“.. photos reveal the moral resurgence of Hinduism ..”
I would formulate it as follows.
“Photos reveal the extent to which political parties exploit the potential of religion to mobilise masses, making them even to forget their own far more important bread and butter issues”
Additionally, the real tragedy is that despite the fact that you are surely a highly educated South Indian, you allow yourself to be lead by a bunch of semi-literate, Godse worshipping, testicle scratching, lumpen, lobotomised North Indian gaurakshaks. These saffron thugs set your agenda and if they tell you that 2+3 = 5, you would go about thrashing people who would have said that 2+2 = 4 !!
Mr Subramanian: Thanks to you, I now know the true meaning of the phrase “useful idiot” !!
Kili, you keep a pessimistic view of (at least other) religions and want to sweep all religious matters under the rug like secular parties won’t touch politically uncomfortable religious issues. What you fail to realize is that the litigation for Ram Mandir had been going on for many years even before the demolition of Masjid without political support. A few comments ago you were having lot of contempt for a comment filled with abuses even as you are reciprocating the same mentally unsound behaviour in your comment.
Just imagine a Jain stabbing Hindus in the back.
Petro $$$$ loving Pravin Jain. His kind will never find worthy photographs of Kashmiri Hindus, including children & women who were raped, tortured, threatened, forcibly converted, hacked & chopped before being driven out of their homeland Kashmir.
This verdict was surely heartbreaking for multiple reasons…. It was a failure of our judiciary… A case which is so clear, a case of national importance where either democracy’s free and fair judiciary wins or hindu majoritarianism… Its evident that the masjid was demolished… Why does it even matter if it was a planned action or not? It was a huge action. Yes,in ancient India, there used to be a ram mandir which was demolished… But justice prevailed in that case, the land was given to ram mandir trust to rebuild it… But here, justice wasn’t given. Its really unfortunate that just because we are Hindus and we are more in number, the judiciary chooses us over truth.
Waiting for orthodox Hindus to bash me with slurs and rape threats lol. I know how you all will respond just because my opinion is not like yours. It’s evident in the comments that you can not respectfully oppose someone’s opinion haha
No one threatened or abused you madam. Lol. Classic fear mongering about Hindu majoritarianism. The Masjid was demolished, and those who demolished it need to be punished, regardless of the demolition being planned or not. The court couldn’t convict anyone due to lack of evidence. Even though we all know someone destroyed the Masjid, we don’t know who to hold accountable. This is not a failure of justice, it is simply the failure of the prosecution.
Good remarks!
An excellent, outstanding comment Ms Srishti Verma !
Alas, democracy in India has degenerated into majoritarianism with strong fascist and Nazi influences from the RSS, VHP and the wider Sangh Parivar.
Worse still, at a time when the nation is reeling from 6 years of economic mismanagement under Modi, a deadly disease stalks the nation, the Chinese are flexing muscles on the border after having captured Indian territory, unemployment is rampant, Naxalites control large swaths of the country, caste based violence is increasing and attacks on women, particularly lower caste and Dalit women are on the rise, even the educated in India are obsessed with a temple. Few are going to be visiting that temple, particularly from the South and East of the country where the centres of pilgrimage are not Ayodhya. Indeed, a straw poll in my own family and neighbours in upper middle class Madras revealed that nobody really knew what the issue in Ayodhya was. And cared even less.
What is truly mind boggling is that the RSS, an outfit that tacitly extols Godse, never flew the Indian flag until recently, never fought for Independence is able to control the minds of even educated Indians with a false narrative of victimhood. Sadly, it is also the educated middle classes who conflate Hinduism, an ancient religion with Hindutva, a violent, fascist ideology that the likes of Savarkar and Golwalkar created by copying Mussolini and Hitler.
As a Hindu – albeit rather lapsed – I find it abhorrent, unfathomable and uttery inhuman that a Hindu mob would gang rape a pregnant Bilkis Bano, smash her 3 year old child’s head on a rock, beat her up and leave her for dead during the 2002 pogroms in Gujarat. 14 women from Ms Bilkis Bano’s family, including her mother were raped and killed, mostly by men from her own village. Indeed, her cousin Shamim who had delivered a baby the day before was also raped and killed along with her infant. When I narrate this to many of my highly educated friends, they do not see anything wrong in it. As they almost always say – Muslims started it; the Pandit exodus from Kashmir justify the Godhra pogroms and there is love jihad too. Indeed, one fellow said that Godhra was OK because Muslims celebrate when Pakistan defeats India in cricket. Equally shocking was the fact that even some women shrugged it off saying that they surely deserved it.
Ms Bilkis Bano survived her ordeals and was reunited with her husband. The police and judiciary in Gujarat being what they were, they refused to register her FIR and she was threatened and had to go into hiding. Ms Bano finally received compensation, some 17 odd years after her night in hell.
As you say, India’s judiciary is not independent. And as the rule of law goes out of the window, one is remoínded of John Locke’s statement:
“Where the law ends, tyranny begins”
Please write often Ms Srishti Verma!
As a fellow women, I feel really ashamed over what you have wrote. I went through all the comments and didn’t see any “rape threats”. You don’t understand the gravity of the word before using it? Please for god’s sake don’t try to be smart by doing it please. Express your views but don’t try to play the women safety card unnecessarily.
As per his story he met the judge two years ago and twice before the judgement. Even in his house when he us leaving to deliver the judgement. This is a clear case of influencing the judge. As per law this is a offence. By writing this story now giving personal meeting details and subsequent judgement he is causing aspiration on the judge. Case should be booked against him in various sections of Cr.PC.
What is this idiot trying to tell or prove……does he have any proof to establish 5th was the rehearsal to the 6th incident except his claim by producing some photos…..where is the link …the photo could have been taken any other day as well….trying to make sensational when everything is shut and closed….
These evidence does’nt matter for andh bhakt
They all are looking blind fools
The part where you try to sell your professional integrity to us with that house ransacking story, that’s a tad bit cheesy. Too bollywoody.
Have you read what is written in this article ?? He submitted the proofs thats why he is saying “dismissing my pictures”
Hi Praveen,
Did you get a chance to meet him again for an explanation? Or would you like to consider such an option? After all, we’re human beings who can reason
It is very rare for judges especially in lower judiciary to entertain journalists or give interview, especially those which are witnesses in the cases they are hearing. There is a real chance of being influenced. In fact it only attests to the judge’s integrity. Mr. Praveen does not have legal expertise and he wouldn’t be worth the time for the judge. This is not a debate arena. The prosecution can appeal in higher courts and most definitely will. Interestingly I believe Praveen has put the judge in peril by disclosing that he met with him.
Thank you for your pictures ☺️…it’s a story now….Would like you see your pictures in future also…Thank you.
Forget these photos, there is vedeo evidence by Kashmir terrorists saying they killed Pandits. But, neither the secular supreme court nor these intellectuals journos like Print, etc showed any interest to entertain the vedeo and punish the culprits. This is selective attitude of the seculars of this country.
Right or wrong about what happened is a different debate.People may have various views.But ‘composite fabric’ of country shredded? Governments shredded their responsibility in the past.Is it because it has been a one way traffic in the past & now the majority awakened & start questioning the apathy towards them? Cannot believe that,some people even today consider that whatever they propagate people of this country will follow.No sir.We judge everything with wisdom.we are not fools.Go to the Court and prove your case.
Well said. The secular fabric of the country was torn by the Congress party and its vote bank politics. The BJP has cleverly utilised the disgust of the majority Hindu population with the sheer anti Hindu outlook of the Congress party and its vote bank policies. The BJP are no saints, they just measured the majorities disgust. By the way, I am completely against the demolishing of the Babri Masjid and the building of the Ram Temple there. Its not the Hinduism I believe in.
Mr Shantharam:
You pontificate:
“.. We judge everything with wisdom.we are not fools.Go to the Court and prove your case ..”
Care to clarify who exactly do you include in the notion of “we”? All Indians? Just Hindus? Believers in Hindutva ? And then are all Hindus believers in the violent ideology of Hindutva?
And as regards your claim:
“.. now the majority awakened & start questioning the apathy towards them ..”
well, suffice it to say that the “majority” – whatever the hell that is – did not suddenly wake up and realise that there was an issue of supreme national importance at Ayodhya upon which the entire future of the nation depended.
Fact is Mr Shantharam that your Godse worshipping, fascist friends in the RSS & VHP decided to put Ayodhya on the national agenda in their own bid to stay relevant. Of course, aided and abetted by PM Rajiv Gandhi’s vacillations and bids to appease both Hindus and Muslims. There was no clamour from the 1 billion + Indians, most of whom were eking a hand to mouth existence that a Ram Mandir temple needed to be built at Ayodhya. Few Hindus, particularly in the South and East India had heard of the Babiri Masjid and even fewer believed that their futures depended on the temple being built at the site of the Masjid. Building a temple at the site of the mosque was a non-issue – I re-iterate, a complete non-issue. India faced far more serious challenges than that.
But clearly, religion and religious divisions in India and in particular hatred of Muslims runs so deep that even educated people like you allow yourselves to be led by semi-literate, testicle scratching North Indian gaurakshaks. You allow these saffron nutcases to decide on what the nation should be expending its energies on. Indeed Mr Shantharam, people like you are the useful idiots for the cause of Hindutva and the frivolous priorities of its violent chieftains. At a time when the nation is reeling from the COVID crisis; the economy had be run to the ground even before the COVID crisis by the Gujarati wizards in Delhi; China threatens and captures Indian territory; unemployment and real hunger is spreading in the population and so on, your ilk prioritises a temple. And a temple which you are unlikely to visit.
The fact that thugs like Adityanath and the Godse worshippers of VHP can control people like you reminds me of a quote from the ancient Roman philosopher Seneca the Younger:
“Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by rulers as useful”.
Going back to your claim: “We judge everything with wisdom.we are not fools”. Well, I for one know who the fool is. He is actually a useful fool !!
You people are naxals in India sooner than later Yogi will be the PM of India and India will officially be declared as Hindu Rastra…
Hindu Rashtra is way far
Bit India isn’t going to be Muslim when more than half of India’s Land is already divided into three muslim nations
And remaining which Congress was trying hard to make Islamic Rashtra.
Yah!!
Ghanta mera
Ayodhya is in Nepal, not India, Ram was not even an Indian but Nepalese. Just because Hindu is incorrigible doesn’t mean that the so-called State Judiciary had to prejudice the house of God and support a Hindu Lie. Only time will decide the truth?
Seriously.!!! You people are actually the real pests. It is our beloved country and you are the devils surviving on the defecation of religious bigots in the name of hindutva.
Time will come and India will have its revenge with these breed of pests.
Did anyone one see mujid in it or the pulling don’t know man
Nice story , you are a wonderful writer.
I have photos when Kashmiri Hindus were killed,noone still stands with them,I have proof when Palghar sadhus were killed,noone stands with them,& where temple was demolished first,and later reestablished is confused ending.
Protest for brain in front of God,none of you have brain,
Biased god isn’t it
Two wrongs can’t make a wrong ,right.
The numbet of pundits who were massacred or their womenfolk brutally raped and killed was around 6lakh.
This Jain guy may get encomiums gor his historic ,risky work but he does not know it was an unused madjid constructrd on a shiva temple.I wish he visit Andhdra Pradesh now ans click the number of temples rszrf nu Christians with help of Govt.
Fortunately Jains and thir properties are safe thanks to Hindus.Bit si tell you it woll ne shortlived
Jai Shree Ram
If he was so sure of his evidence then why did he not fight for it?
Good question.
What a journalist, who despite being a witness in the case , goes to meet the presiding judge a day before judgement, potentially to influence him. But his bad luck, it didn’t work. Someone practising climbing can’t be termed as evidence of practising demolition.
The man in mask may be shouting to stop, how this idiot presumed that he is instructing, lot of imagination which is not valid in court.
What abt 45000 temples set to fire and millions of non muslim butchered.
That’s the greatest lie which is being propagated since 2014. Don’t know where they got this magic number of 45000. How is even possible to demolish 45000 temples. Demolishing 45000 anthills some 500 yrs ago will leave some evidence, let alone 45000 temples. History is being murdered every single day and this is definitely not good for emerging India. I don’t understand something. If there was really a ram temple in the place of babri masjid, and tulsidas who according to everyone was so fond ram and wrote great deal about ram, born in 1497 and died in 1623. Missed to even mention about the great ram temple being demolished and babri masjid taking its place in 1528 or 29. The justice hasn’t been done yet.. it’s a criminal act that needs criminal action against the perpetrators.
This is habbit of so called minority which is only 1500 years old and person born in this section/caste is not in minority at the time of birth… He/she is Hindu/Sanathan dharam by birth.
No one needs your camera ??
Find those men in picture and produce infront of court. Why this so much hullabaloo?
You all fake news the print,all nonsense,gossip,plz go for some different news across India,wahi ghisa pitta,bored
This person is a mediator of congress fools who have no guts to restore Indian culture after the invasion of Islamic rules from afghan. We Indians strongly support the honourable Supreme Court judgment. And want Madhura and Kashi restored to its originals how it was before the Islam rulers destroyed it. #freeindiafromislam
India is a secular country and everyone has the right to live here and practice their respective religions so you are no one to say that” free India from Islam”.As here we all are living peacefully and because of your kind of people’s who judge others on the basis of their religion we faces disputes between different religions.
How about restoring even before mathura. I The Lord Shiva can show you the real truth, the end, the beginning.
We all know the Print is most biased news channel we don’t believe any proof or any news provider by ur channel. Go to hell
The judgement exonerating the accused to be seen as a prevention of another fresh blood bath notwithstanding merits of the verdict. Enough of blood and violence on this. Let’s spare the gullible.
Court has given best verdict after analyzing all the proof and evidence
This idiot, having changed so many newspapers thinks it is his photographs vs rest of the world which would have decided the case. As per his article he showed a man with a mask giving instructions. So it proves that some 49 leaders are guilty of conspiracy, ha ha.
Well he is a photo editor …. probably a bad one as court see through his editing. Also even if pictures are not fake (which they are) then too they are circumstancial at best and not conclusive. Also why in story they say kar sevak everywhere just to pass their narrative how are they able to identify kar sevak by just look..
What about thousands of temples that have been destroyed and hindu idols and chariots that are still being destroyed? Is this guy not worried about that?
Stupid person, he did but the Judge refused to accept it as strong enough proof.
LOL.
Hello Mr.Pravin Jain. You declare that you have covered almost all important events occurring in the country including VP Singh,Bindrawale,Sikh riots of 1984. Has it ever occured to you that there were rehearsal riots by Muslim majority against pandora in Kashmir in 1986 and final act in 1989-90 onwards. Did it not fancy you to cover the same as there was no TRP value or atrocity against Hindus is not a catchy media masala. Had you or the likes of you covered something out of genocide in Kashmir then,may be majority of the secular Hindus of Kashmir might not have lost faith and trust in your masala media.
Why are you not producing it court?
Stop this way of becoming famous and doing income.
If you have real evidence (which you claim you have taken with the risk of life), please submit it to court.
Why are you not producing it court?
Stop this way of becoming famous and doing income.
If you have real evidence (which you claim you have taken with the risk of life), please submit it to court.
Padho, he submitted it to court, it was washed away.
Because it was not good evidence. The court rejected it.
Really? Or was it uncomfortable evidence that put senior Members of the fascists who run the country in their true light ?
Do you want a conflagration by getting 32 people convicted for bringing down a structure that was built by force by the ruthless invaders usurping this peace loving country ?
Praveen Jain, you seem to have been taken in by Hindi films where the hero dramatically produces some evidence at the last minute and the judge overturns the case. That is not how real life works. In case you had evidence, the thing to do was to place it before the court. What you did, instead, was to print it in a few newspapers where you worked. That is mischief making. It is not search for justice.
The Babri Masjid was an evil structure, created by an evil shadow which haunted India for long. It is gone in the new India. The new India is a better place because of it being removed. This new India is neutral to caste, religion, wealth and gender. The new India treats everyone as an equal. Anyone who has a problem with living as an equal is welcome to go off somewhere else.
Meeting judge numerous times before judgement, to influence the verdict in your favour, that’s what he is trying to say
Vo photo b dikha de sale jab suaro ne Baba k mandir ko toda tha ,
Me vo photos chahta hu
Bogus journos of the kind-sooner it goes to the dustbins the better for the land.
But no accused appeared in photos. So frame them and worship them ev Day
Pravin ji court me pesh kie the aap negatives?? Duniya ko ullu bana rahe ho for cheap publicity..sharam aani chhaiye and aapke jaise logo ko gaali hi padni chhaiye
As a member of a minority community, I am heartened by the fact that Praveen Jain is a Hindu who feels that justice has been perverted. Also that the Print published his statement. This means that all goodness is not dead in the hearts of Hindus and that there are many, albeit silent now, who do not agree with the politics of historical revenge and an “eye-for-an-eye, tooth-for-a-tooth” philosophy. If Babur built a mosque on a temple, that was wrong, but demolishing the mosque to make a temple does not make it right.
Print you have everything to say against Hinduism, but never against islam who tortured Hindus for centuries and still doing it but print cover