Almost 17 years after it was set up to probe the “sequence of events leading, and all facts and circumstances relating to, the occurrences at Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid

complex on December 6, 1992”, the one-member Justice M S Liberhan Commission finally submitted its report to the Union Government today.

The demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya had triggered communal riots in the country, claiming many lives.

Accompanied by Commission counsel Harpreet Singh Giani, Liberhan handed over a four-volume report to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh this morning. It is learnt that a copy of the report has been forwarded to the Union Home Ministry for action.

While Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs V Narayanasamy told reporters that the report would be tabled in Parliament along with an Action Taken Report (ATR) during the Budget session, sources in the Home Ministry denied any such move. “There is no deadline. We will study the report and take a call,” a senior MHA official told The Indian Express.

While the contents of the report have not been made public, sources in the Commission said the report comes down heavily on the then Uttar Pradesh government of Kalyan Singh and its top officers for failing to prevent the demolition of the Babri Masjid.

“The Commission has also taken a negative view of the failure of the then Congress government at the Centre led by P V Narasimha Rao in protecting the disputed structure,” said a source associated with the Commission.

Commission functionaries, however, refused to say whether BJP leader L K Advani, over whose role Liberhan and previous Commission counsel Anupam Gupta had a bitter fallout, has been indicted or let off.

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