By Pervez Bari, TwoCircles.net,
Bhopal: A Bhopal court has accepted a revision petition and appeal filed by the Madhya Pradesh State Government, seeking enhancement of punishment to the accused of the Bhopal Gas Tragedy, the world’s worst industrial disaster.
According to sources the court of District judge Ms Sushma Khosla admitted the application and appeal and set the next date of hearing in the case for August 20. The court issued notices to India’s premier investigating agency Central Bureau of Investigation, (CBI), and all the eight accused in the case.
It may be recalled here that on June 7 last year, Chief Judicial Magistrate Mohan P. Tiwari had convicted Keshub Mahindra, the non-executive former Chairman of UCIL and seven others including Vijay Gokhale, the then Managing Director of UCIL, Kishore Kamdar, the then Vice President, JN Mukund, the then Works Manager, S P Choudhary, the then Production Manager, KV Shetty, the then Plant Superintendent and SI Qureshi, the then Production Assistant for causing death due to negligence and had sentenced them to two years of imprisonment each. All of them were let-off on bail within hours of the pronouncement of the judgment in the case.
They were held guilty under Sections 304-A (causing death by negligence), 304-II (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) and 336, 337 and 338 (gross negligence) of the Indian Penal Code. They were also fined under section 304-A, given imprisonment of three months and a fine of Rs. 250 under section 336, six months and Rs. 500 under section 337 and two years and Rs. 1,000 under section 338.
Senior public prosecutor Satish Dinkar and Additional Solicitor General Vivek Tankha argued on behalf of the State.