In 1991, he wrote a paper, with other historians R.S. Sharma, Suraj Bhan, and Athar Ali, making a case that there was no evidence to prove that the Babri Masjid, a mosque in Ayodhya, was built over a temple at the same site. The findings were documented in "Ramjanmabhoomi-Baburi Masjid: A Historians’ Report to the Nation" (1991) which he co-wrote with The mosque was demolished a year later by right wing activists. The paper diverged in its findings from the Archaeological Survey of India's findings and was later dismissed by the Supreme Court of India in 2019 as an opinion.