The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is believed to have traced 16 of the 23 “missing” files relating to the Ramjanmabhoomi-Babri mosque dispute and found out that the rest seven were “weeded out” as useless.

Sources said the investigation so far indicated that the documents were removed intentionally. The CBI would be registering fresh cases against officials found responsible for destroying the files.

The investigative agency is yet to ascertain whether the seven documents which the Allahabad High Court had summoned from the state government are among the 16 it has traced. The files are in a very bad condition, the sources said.

Among the 23 missing documents was a telex from the first prime minister Jawahar Lal Nehru to the state government for removal of the idols installed in the Babri Mosque in 1949 as also a correspondence between the Uttar Pradesh government and the then Faizabad district magistrate.

Despite repeated directions of the high court, the state government had failed to find these documents. Later, it informed the court that, in fact, as many as 23 files relating to the Babri dispute were missing.

On July 10 this year, the state government lodged an FIR regarding the missing files at the Hazratganj police station in Lucknow and later recommended a CBI probe into the matter.

However, on July 15, the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court expressed unhappiness over the government’s handling of the matter and directed the CBI to probe the matter within two months and submit a progress report before the court on August 24, which is the next date of hearing.

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