The government has turned down Uttarakhand cadre IPS officer Anju Gupta’s proposal for granting permanent secondment in the Research and Analysis Wing on the grounds that already a large number of officers at the joint secretary-level posted in the external intelligence agency have been granted extension.

Gupta, earlier in the Uttar Pradesh cadre, was among the star witnesses in the 1992 Babri Masjid demolition case and has deposed against veteran BJP leader L K Advani before a special court in Rae Bareli in 2010, saying that Advani made a “provocative speech” in Ayodhya before the mosque was attacked and demolished by a mob.

“He looked euphoric, his provocative speech, applauded by his other party colleagues, infused enthusiasm amongst kar sevaks,” Gupta is said to have told the court. She was then posted as Assistant Superintendent of Police in Faizabad and was the security in-charge of VVIPs in Ayodhya on December 6, 1992. Gupta also made similar deposition before CBI and the Liberhan Commission.

A 1990 batch IPS officer, Gupta opted for the Uttarakhand cadre after bifurcation of Uttar Pradesh in 2000 since her husband, Shafi Ahsan Rizvi, an 1989 batch IPS officer, chose Uttarakhand cadre. Rizvi is currently a joint director in the Intelligence Bureau (IB) and in charge of economic intelligence.

Gupta has been on central deputation with R&AW since 2009, starting as director in the Cabinet Secretariat and later promoted to the rank of Joint Secretary. She has also served with the United Nations. In her deposition, Gupta reportedly said Advani said the “mandir will be constructed on the same 2.7 acres”.

“I was asked by him to arrange a telephonic talk with then UP CM Kalyan Singh, DM and SSP, Faizabad,” she told the court, adding that the DM and SSP came to the dais at Ram Katha Kunj after messages were sent to them. She said Advani later spoke to the CM but she was not aware of what was said.

Advani, she said, epressed the desire to go near the disputed site. “When he was told that people were trying to climb the domes and some of them had fallen down and were hurt, he expressed his desire to go to the site and appeal to the people to come down,” she said, adding that he was later told not to go there because the situation could go out of control if anything were to happen to him.