CBI files fresh plea in Bhopal gas disaster case

Following the public uproar over the light sentences handed out to the eight accused in the 1984 Bhopal gas disaster, The Central Bureau of Investigation on Monday moved a curative petition in the Supreme Court challenging the 1996 judgement delivered by the then chief justice A M Ahmadi, which had diluted the charges against the accused.
 
''The petitioner (CBI), by way of the present curative petition, is seeking restoration of the charges of Section 304 Part II of the Indian Penal Code against the respondents / accused persons which were quashed by this court without any consideration of the material placed by the prosecution at that stage,'' said the agency in its petition settled by attorney general G E Vahanvati.

Section 304 Part II deals with the stringent charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder, which attracts maximum punishment of a 10-year jail term.

However, due to dilution of the charges, the accused were tried under section 304A of the IPC, which provides a maximum punishment of two years of jail. In fact, none of the accused has actually seen the inside of a jail, since they have all been granted bail.

Contending that failure of justice had affected not only the victims but also society and the nation as a whole, the CBI asked for the original charges to be restored against the accused, Keshub Mahindra and others (including Union Carbide India), who were let off by a trial court in Bhopal this past June with a minor punishment of two years.

The petition is silent on Warren Anderson, the former chairman of Union Carbide.

''Categorical evidence has now come to light ... the accused persons getting away with minimal charges under Section 304-A, despite categorical evidence pointing to the commission of offences under Section 304 Part II of the IPC, has resulted in a colossal failure of justice.