The CBI on Monday opposed a plea for retrial filed by three senior officials of the Union Carbide factory, who had been convicted for their role in the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy, and said that “acquittal of the guilty” would represent a failure of justice.
The CBI reply was submitted before the Principal District and Sessions Judge Manoj Kumar Shrivastava in Bhopal.
The three who filed the plea were Kishore Kamdar, who was a vice-president of the Indian arm of Union Carbide; J Mukund, a works manager; and S P Chowdhury, a production manager. They filed an appeal against their conviction in the Bhopal gas tragedy case investigated by the CBI and sought a retrial.
Calling for the application of the three accused to be rejected, the CBI said, “Failure of justice is an extremely pliable or facile expression, which can be made to fit into any situation in any case.” The CBI urged the “court must endeavour to find the truth”.
“There would be ‘failure of justice’; not only by unjust conviction, but also by acquittal of the guilty, as a result of unjust failure to produce requisite evidence. Of course, the rights of the accused have to be kept in mind and also safeguarded, but they should not be overemphasised to the extent of forgetting that the victims also have rights,” the agency submitted.
The CBI told the court that “it has to be shown that the accused has suffered some disability or detriment in respect of the protections available to him under the Indian criminal jurisprudence”.
“Prejudice is incapable of being interpreted in its generic sense and applied to criminal jurisprudence. The plea of prejudice has to be in relation to investigation or trial, and not with respect to matters falling outside their scope,” the agency submitted.
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The CBI told the court that once “the accused is able to show that there has been serious prejudice caused to him, with respect to either of these aspects, and that the same has defeated the rights available to him under criminal jurisprudence, then the accused can seek benefit under the orders of the court”.
The CBI also said that the trial court which framed charges against the accused on August 29, 1997, had already taken into consideration the application of the accused person “highlighting error, omission or irregularity” in the charges. The agency also said the accused had pleaded guilty to the charges voluntarily.
Eight persons were convicted by the trial court on June 7, 2010. The CBI had taken over the investigation of the case on December 6, 1984. The eight convicted were Keshub Mahindra, the chairman of the Indian arm of the Union Carbide (UCIL); V P Gokhale, managing director; Kishore Kamdar, vice-president; J Mukund, works manager; S P Chowdhury, production manager; K V Shetty, plant superintendent; and S I Qureshi, production assistant.
It was alleged in the FIR that on the intervening night of December 2 and 3, 1984, methyle iso cynate (MIC), a highly toxic chemical, started to escape from tank No 610 in the Union Carbide factory at Bhopal in large quantities, causing “immediate deaths of thousands of human beings and animals and caused injury of health of lakhs of human beings”.
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“The tragedy was of unprecedented nature and had continuing tragic and disastrous effect on human beings and animals. This intervening night of 2nd and 3rd December 1984 is not an easy one to forget for India,” the CBI submitted.
The CBI submitted that “due to business losses, it was decided by the management of M/s UCC to shutdown its Bhopal plant and to dismantle the plant installation at Bhopal unit and subsequently shift it to Indonesia/Brazil, which resulted in the wilful negligence in maintenance of existing unit of M/s UCIL Bhopal on the part of accused persons”.
