Twitter
Advertisement

Supreme Court urged to enhance Bhopal gas charges

CBI seeks reimposition of stringent section on accused guaranteeing 10 years in jail.

Latest News
article-main
FacebookTwitterWhatsappLinkedin

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Monday filed a petition in the Supreme Court (SC) to restore the charge of culpable homicide against the Bhopal gas leak case accused by recalling its September 13, 1996, judgment that had diluted the offence.

The stringent charge of culpable attracts a maximum punishment of 10 years’ imprisonment.

A curative petition, cleared by attorney-general Goolam E Vahanvati, said there was a “gross miscarriage” of justice in the case since the charge was whittled down to causing death due to a rash and negligent act.

The accused were former Union Carbide India Ltd (UCIL) chairman Keshub Mahindra and six others (the then managing director of UCIL, Vijay Gokhale, vice-president Kishore Kamdar, works manager JN Mukund, production manager SP Choudhary, plant superintendent KV Shetty and production assistant SI Quereshi).

On June 7 this year, a trial court in Bhopal sentenced them to two years in jail. They were immediately let off on bail and their appeals against conviction are pending before a sessions court.

The CBI says in the petition that it is an attempt to set right the “gross miscarriage and perpetuation of irremediable injustice” suffered by the gas leak victims, civil society and the nation; that the perpetrators should not be “able to walk away with a minimal punishment of two years under section 304-A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC)”.    

Also, there is ample evidence to show the commission of an offence under section 304 part II (culpable homicide not amounting to murder).

The 1996 judgment was passed by a bench headed by the then chief justice of India AM Ahmadi, who within a year of his retirement in 1998 also accepted the chairmanship of the Bhopal Memorial Hospital Trust (BMHT).

Asserting that the Supreme Court in 1996 did not take into account the enormous material placed before it demonstrating that the multiple defects in the UCIL plant were known to the owners and the management, the petition relies on the trial court’s judgment confirming this.

The tragedy was caused by a “synergy of the very worst of American and Indian cultures”, the trial court had said, adding that an American company cynically used a third world country to escape the increasingly strict safety standards being imposed back home.

Meanwhile, the Madhya Pradesh government and a few NGOs engaged in providing relief to the victims may also file a petition in the Supreme Court seeking a review of not only the 1996 judgment, but also its 1989 verdict that had drastically reduced the compensation amount from $3 billion — as claimed by the Indian government — to a mere $470 million.

Find your daily dose of news & explainers in your WhatsApp. Stay updated, Stay informed-  Follow DNA on WhatsApp.
Advertisement

Live tv

Advertisement
Advertisement