BHOPAL : The organisations working for gas tragedy victims on Wednesday demanded ex-parte trial proceedings in the district court against the American MNC giant Dow Chemicals before the judicial magistrate hearing the matter. The gas tragedy survivors’ outfits condemned the governments of both India and the USA for the non appearance of any representative of Dow Chemicals in the ongoing criminal case on the disaster.
Advocate Avi Singh, who appeared on behalf of the gas victims, said, “Indian Penal Code expressly provides for ex-parte proceedings against a defendant in a criminal trial that ignores notices of the court.” Singh pointed out that Dow Chemical has publicly admitted their knowledge of the four consecutive notices issued by the Bhopal Court and it is evident on the corporate website.
“In the last two years Dow Chemical has thrice ignored the court’s notice and all that the Indian government has done is send one meek request after another and not utter a word on the violation of the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty by the US Department of Justice (DoJ) in not serving the notice on Dow Chemical” said Rachna Dhingra of Bhopal Group for Information and Action.
