BHOPAL : Counsels for Defence of the eight UCIL officials convicted by a lower court for causing death due to negligence, told an appellate court here on Friday that top officials had no role as far as tragedy was concerned.
The ADJ court was hearing on appeal against two years’ imprisonment awarded to the eight convicts including Keshub Mahindra (UCIL chairman), Vijay Gokhale (managing director), Kishore Kamdar (vice-president), J. Mukund (works manager), KV Shetty (plant superintendent), SI Qureshi (production assistant), R.B. Ramachandran (instrument engineer) and SP Rai Choudhary (production manager; now dead). Keshub Mahindra, current chairman of vehicle and tractor maker Mahindra & Mahindra, was the highest-ranking officer convicted.
The maximum sentence that the court could have pronounced was two years’ RI as charges against them were watered down from culpable homicide not amounting to murder (Section 304 of IPC) to causing death due to negligence (Section 304 A) by the Supreme Court.
The accused were tried under Indian Penal Code sections 304 (A), 336 (acts endangering life or personal safety of others) and 337 (causing hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others).
Advocate Ajay Gupta said, “Defense counsel D Prasad who is representing J Mukund and SP Rai Chaudhary argued on the basis of the report of the scientists on the tragedy. The next hearing will be on March 30′.
