By IANS,
New Delhi : The Supreme Court Wednesday quizzed the CBI for knocking on its doors 16 years after the court told the probe agency to book the seven accused in the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy case under less stringent charges.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) wants the apex court to restore against the accused, including the then Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) chairman Keshub Mahindra, the stringent charges of culpable homicide not amounting to murder, punishable with a maximum jail term of 10 years.
The charges against the accused were diluted by the apex court by its Sep 13, 1996 judgment. They were convicted by a Bhopal court last year under the less stringent provision of causing death due to negligence, carrying a maximum punishment of two years’ jail.
An apex court bench of Chief Justice S.H. Kapadia, Justice Altamas Kabir, Justice R.V. Raveendran, Justice B. Sudershan Reddy and Justice Aftab Alam asked Attorney General G. Vahanvati, appearing for the CBI, why it took the agency so long to file the petition.