NEW DELHI, Sept 1: India’s supreme court on Monday refused to stay proceedings against Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani and others accused of involvement in the demolition of the Babri mosque in 1992.

The court also issued notices to Mr Advani, Human Resources Development Minister Murli Manohar Joshi and federal detectives probing the demolition, asking why they had sought to drop conspiracy charges in the case.

Mr Advani, Mr Joshi and other hardliners are accused of inciting thousands of Hindu zealots to pull down the 16th century mosque, saying it was built after a temple to their mythological warrior god Ram was destroyed.

In May detectives of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) filed a formal petition with the court seeking to quash conspiracy charges against the deputy prime minister and other senior political figures.

Last month, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee rejected opposition charges that the CBI had been “used” to protect Mr Advani and the others.

The dispute over the site is now in the hands of the courts, which ordered experts of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to excavate the site.

A summary of a report submitted by the ASI to the court last week described a 10th-century temple with Hindu carvings under the rubble of the Babri mosque.—AFP/APP