Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): The district and sessions court, Bhopal, said on Friday that the petition filed by the three guilty officials of Union Carbide for a new trial would be settled with pending appeal.
Kishore Kamdar (vice president), J. Mukund (works manager) and S.P. Choudhary (production manager) had filed the petition under Section 464 CrPC., stating that the charges against them were wrong and without any basis and the CBI’s investigation was flawed, so the June 7,2010 judgement pronouncing them guilty should be quashed, new charges framed and a new trial started.
This application was filed in the criminal appeal pending in the Bhopal district court, arising from the criminal matter pertaining to the Union Carbide tragedy in Bhopal.
Rachna Dhingra of Bhopal Group for Information and Action, said, “As per the court order, ‘the appeal under Section 464 CrPC filed by the convicted Carbide officials will be decided simultaneously with the criminal appeal against them’.
The order states that the application filed under Section 464 CrPC cannot be disposed of during the pendency of the appeal and can be considered only at the time of final hearing of the appeal. Therefore, the applications will be disposed of only after the final hearing of the appeal. Thus, all criminal appeals arising from the impugned judgment of the trial court are fixed for final arguments.”
