In 2002, High Court asked for Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) to be used to confirm if the long-held tradition of a temple beneath the disputed Babri Masjid site was true. The verdict was overwhelmingly affirmative. High Court then asked the Archeological Survey of India (ASI) to verify the GPR claim with its own excavations.
The ASI report (ASI 2003) said: "Excavations at the disputed site of Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid was carried out by the ASI from March 12, 2003 to August 7, 2003. 82 trenches were excavated." The ASI's verdict was there are "remains which are distinctive features found associated with the temples of north India."
It was a huge setback for "Ram Janmabhoomi" opponents. But more damning was the judicial word on the so-called academicians and experts for the fraud and wool they tried to pull over the eyes of the High Court bench.
The Allahabad High Court reprimanded the JNU "historians and academicians", for their flawed research and vested opinions . One Professor Mandal, who had written a book against the Hindu claim, was found never to have even visited Ayodhya!!! These independent experts, historians and archaeologists had appeared on behalf of the Waqf Board.
One of the three judges, Justice Sudhir Agarwal, in particular, put these experts under judicial scrutiny. Most of these experts were made to depose twice.
These "historians", before the ASI excavations, had said there was no temple beneath the mosque. Once the buried structure was under-earthed, they claimed it was a "mosque" or "stupa."
They were then subjected to a grueling cross-examination by Justice Agarwal and his opinion runs over several pages in the final report. Damningly, these independent "historians and experts" were all shown to have connections. For example, one had done a PhD under the other, another had contributed an article to a book written by a witness.
These "historians" who had written signed articles and issued pamphlets, were found by the Honorable Judge to have an "ostrich-like attitude" to facts. The cookie crumbled quickly enough:
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