It would be an injustice to clear the guilty in the Bhopal gas tragedy case: Three firm officials’ appeal for a retrial is rejected by the CBI

Three senior Union Carbide factory officials who were found guilty of their roles in the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy filed a plea for a retrial, but the CBI rejected it on Monday, claiming that “acquittal of the guilty” would be an injustice.

In Bhopal, the CBI’s response was presented to Manoj Kumar Shrivastava, the Principal District and Sessions Judge.

Kishore Kamdar, vice-president of Union Carbide’s Indian division; J Mukund, a works manager; and S P Chowdhury, a production manager, were the three individuals who submitted the appeal. In the CBI-investigated Bhopal gas tragedy case, they appealed their conviction and requested a new trial.

“Failure of justice is an extremely pliable or facile expression, which can be made to fit into any situation in any case,” the CBI argued, calling for the rejection of the three accused’s application. “The court must endeavor to find the truth,” the CBI urged.

A “failure of justice” would occur, not only from an unfair conviction but also from the guilty being acquitted due to an unfair failure to provide the necessary evidence. It goes without saying that the rights of the accused must be respected and protected, but the agency argued that this should not be done at the expense of the victims’ rights.

“It must be demonstrated that the accused has experienced some disability or harm with regard to the protections available to him under the Indian criminal jurisprudence,” the CBI said the court.

It is impossible to apply prejudice to criminal jurisprudence in its broadest sense. The agency argued that the plea of prejudice must be related to the inquiry or trial and not to topics that are outside their purview.

According to what the CBI told the court, “the accused can seek benefit under the orders of the court once he 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.”

The CBI further stated that the accused person’s motion “highlighting error, omission, or irregularity” in the allegations had previously been taken into consideration by the trial court that fixed the charges against them on August 29, 1997. The accused willingly entered a guilty plea to the allegations, according to the agency.

On June 7, 2010, the trial court found eight people guilty. On December 6, 1984, the CBI assumed responsibility for the case’s investigation. 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.

According to the FIR, methyle iso cynate (MIC), a highly toxic chemical, began to leak in large quantities from tank No. 610 in the Union Carbide factory in Bhopal on the intervening nights of December 2 and 3, 1984, resulting in the “immediate deaths of thousands of human beings and animals and caused injury of health of lakhs of human beings.”

The disaster was unprecedented in scope and had a devastating and terrible impact on both humans and animals that has persisted to this day. For India, the intervening nights of December 2 and 3, 1984, are difficult to forget, the CBI argued.

“The management of M/s UCC decided to shut down its Bhopal plant and dismantle the plant installation at the Bhopal unit and subsequently shift it to Indonesia/Brazil due to business losses, which resulted in the wilful negligence in maintenance of the existing unit of M/s UCIL Bhopal on the part of accused persons,” the CBI argued.