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Bhopal:
Twenty-six years after the Bhopal gas tragedy which claimed
thousands of lives, a local court trying the case would pronounce
its verdict on June 7.
Chief Judicial Magistrate Mohan P Tiwari today said he will
pronounce the judgement on June seven on the toxic leak from the
Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) factory (now defunct), after the
arguments of prosecution, CBI, and defence of eight accused drew to
a close in the 23-year-old trial.
During the trial, 178 prosecution witnesses were examined and 3,008
documents were exhibited.
CBI counsel C Sahay has argued that the world's worst industrial
disaster occurred due to defective design of the UCIL's factory and
poor maintenance.
Sahay told the court that the Union Carbide Corporation, USA,
surveyed the UCIL's Bhopal factory in 1982 and found serious safety
and maintenance lapses on nearly ten counts.
He contended that even after UCC experts' team visit adequate safety
measures and maintenance work did not take place in the UCIL.
The prosecution argued that even the experts' team of the central
government which visited the UCIL plant, after the toxic leak from
it in 1984, found that safety norms and maintenance work had not
been properly carried out in the factory.
Sahay has contended that the expert team has found the design of the
plant defective which led to the tragedy.
On the other hand, the defence counsels D Prasad and Amit Desai
maintained that maintenance and safety norms were properly adhered
to in the factory.
They said experts from Union Carbide Corporation, USA, who had
visited the UCIL Bhopal's plant did not find any fault in the unit
following the death of a worker in 1982 – two years before the
tragedy.
The defence contended that the UCIL was so much concerned on safety
front that after the death of one Mohammed Ashraf Khan, it reported
the matter to the UCC, which carried out a safety audit.
After the UCC team's visit, its recommendations to further improve
safety measures were taken care of in the stipulated time. The
defence counsels have also refuted the charge that UCIL Bhopal was
running into losses and as a result of it, the unit was not in a
proper shape.
Defence counsel Prasad told the court that the UCIL had 17 factories
across the country and except Bhopal unit, all others were earning
profit. The UCIL as a whole was running in profit and its Bhopal
unit staffers' salary was hiked before the Gas tragedy took place.
He said there was no retrenchment in the Bhopal unit and it had
adequate work force.
The defence refuted the prosecution charge that the UCIL had decided
to dismantle and shift its Bhopal plant to foreign country -- Brazil
or Indonesia -- following financial losses.
The prosecution's theory that the factory was being shifted was
based on a written communication between two officers -- one of UCIL
and another of Union Carbide Eastern, Hong Kong, it said.
The communication was just related to preliminary study to look into
feasibility of dismantling and shifting the unit, the defence has
argued, adding such a big decision can not be taken by two officers.
The defence counsels contended that their clients were not in any
way responsible for the tragedy and also put forth the accounts of
the witnesses and documents.
The accused in the case include Keshub Mahendra, then Chairman of
UCIL, Vijay Gokhle, then Managing Director of UCIL, Kishore Kamdar,
then former vice president, UCIL, Mumbai, J Mukund, then former
Works Manager, UCIL, Mumbai, SP Chouhary, then former Production
Manager, UCIL, Mumbai, K V Shetty, then Plant Superintendent, UCIL,
Mumbai, SI Qureshi, the then Production Assistants, UCIL, Mumbai.
The accused have been tried under various sections of IPC including
304 (A) (causing death by negligence, 336 (acts endangering life or
personal safety of others) and 337 (causing hurt by act endangering
life or personal safety of others).
Warren Anderson, former Chairman, Union Carbide Corporation, USA is
absconding in the case.
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