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Supreme
Court rejects CBI plea to reopen Bhopal case
Wednesday May 11, 2011 12:27:46 PM,
IANS
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New Delhi:
The Supreme Court Wednesday dismissed a Central Bureau of
Investigation (CBI) petition seeking more stringent punishment for
then United Carbide India Ltd (UCIL) chairman Keshub Mahindra and
six others in the Bhopal gas tragedy case.
The apex court, by its 1996 verdict, had diluted the charges
against the accused from Section 304 (A) of the Indian Penal Code
-- culpable homicide not amounting to murder, to that of Section
304 (II) -- criminal negligence.
The investigative agency had moved the apex court, seeking a
direction of the framing of charges against Mahindra and others
for culpable homicide not amounting to murder that amounts a
maximum imprisonment of 10 years.
Under criminal negligence, the maximum punishment is just two
years.
Delivering the judgment for the constitution bench, Chief Justice
S.H. Kapadia said that after the 1996 verdict, the accused could
not be tried under the stringent provisions of law without any
basis.
The court said the 1996 judgment in no way shackled the trial
court from framing the charges under the stringent provisions of
the criminal procedure court.
The judgment cleared the way for the trial court to frame charges
against the seven accused under Section 304 (II) as the evidence
available so warranted.
The accused were convicted by a Bhopal court last year under the
less stringent provisions of causing death due to negligence.
The Union Carbide disaster, in which poisonous methyl isocyanate
(MIC) gas leaked from the plant on the night of Dec 2-3, 1984,
killed 3,000 people instantly and 25,000 over the years. It also
affected 100,000 people and estimates are that more than 500,000
continue to suffer from ill effects of the gas.
Wednesday's ruling was a huge setback to the victims of the
world's worst industrial disaster, said Bhopal activists.
The CBI moved the apex court after a trial court in Bhopal
convicted Mahindra and others under section 304 (A) and awarded
them imprisonment of two years.
All the seven accused -- Mahindra, then UCIL managing director
Vijay Gokhale, vice president Kishore Kamdar, works manager J.N.
Mukund, production manager S.P. Choudhary, plant superintendent
K.V. Shetty and production assistant S.I. Quereshi -- walked away
after getting bail.
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