Justice Manmohan Singh Liberhan, who headed a one-man judicial commission to investigate the circumstances that led to the demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya, died at the age of 87 on Sunday, The Hindu reported.

His last rites were performed on Monday.

Born on November 11, 1938, in a village near Chandigarh, Liberhan was a former Chief Justice of the Andhra Pradesh and Madras High Courts.

He began his career at the Punjab and Haryana High Court in 1964.

On February 11, 1987, Liberhan was elevated as a judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

He retired as the chief justice of the Andhra Pradesh High Court on November 10, 2000, but continued to serve as the head of the Liberhan Commission.

The commission was set up days after the Babri Masjid was demolished on December 6, 1992 by Hindutva extremists who believed that the site was the birthplace of the deity Ram. It submitted its report to the Union government after 17 years, in 2009.

It went on to become one of the longest-running commissions of inquiry in India’s history.

The panel indicted Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh members for their alleged involvement in destroying the mosque. It also named several senior leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party such as Atal Bihari Vajpayee, LK Advani, Kalyan Singh, Pramod Mahajan and others.

In a landmark verdict on November 9, 2019 the Supreme Court had ruled that the disputed land in Ayodhya would be handed over to a government-run trust for the construction of a Ram temple. The court said that the demolition of Babri Masjid was illegal and directed the government to acquire an alternative plot of land to build a mosque.

Liberhan had told The Times of India that the court verdict in the case did not represent the sentiments of all communities. “The Supreme Court has decided the title only,” he said. “My views about the judgement are different. Yes, it does not represent the sentiments of all communities but something has to be relied on at some level.”

He had also said that the presence of RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat at the ground-breaking ceremony of the Ram temple vindicated his stand that a team of RSS cadre was involved in the demolition of the mosque.

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