Union Carbide Gas Tragedy: Final Arguments Appeals Set For February 3; CBI Submits Death Verification Report Of Then UCC Shift Supervisor

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): In the criminal case of the toxic methyl isocyanate gas leak from the Union Carbide factory, the CBI on Thursday submitted the death verification report of Shakeel Qureshi, the then shift supervisor of the Union Carbide corporation (UCC) factory, in the court of Principal District and Sessions Judge Manoj Kumar Srivastava.

This was in connection with the appeals filed by the convicts seeking leniency in the sentences handed down by the Chief Judicial Magistrate's court, which had convicted the then officials of Union Carbide Company, and the appeals filed by the CBI seeking enhancement of the sentences.

The Principal District and Sessions Judge has fixed February 3 for the CBI to present its final arguments. The advocates for the then officials of UCC have been presenting their final arguments for the past 10 years.

25 years after the Union Carbide factory gas tragedy, on June 7, 2010, the then Chief Judicial Magistrate Mohan P. Tiwari convicted all eight accused in the case – Keshav Mahindra, Vijay Gokhale, Kishore Kamdar, J. Mukund, A.S.P. Chaudhary, K.B. Shetty, and Union Carbide Company India – under Section 304A of the IPC. He sentenced seven of the accused to two years of rigorous imprisonment.