CBI probe into gas tragedy baseless and malicious, says counsel of Indian convict

Probe conducted by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy was “baseless and had withheld crucial evidences to create a false narrative”, submitted counsel Anirban Roy before the district and sessions court in Bhopal on Saturday.

Roy was presenting his argument during the hearing of an appeal of his client and convict SP Chaudhary, plant incharge of Methyl Isocyanate (MIC) against CBI. The investigative agency has demanded highest possible punishment for the seven accused by treating each of the 3,800 deaths separately and seeking conviction for every death. He was also presenting his argument on the interim application to seek the case diary of CBI.

“CBI during its investigations overlooked many important facts. The charge-sheet filed by it was according to a pre-planned strategy of the then government of India to seek 1 billion US dollars from Union Carbide Corporation which was settled to 470 million US dollars,” said Roy during the hearing.

Claiming the tragedy to be the result of sabotage, he said, “There were eight employees present in the factory during the incident. The CBI during its investigations has ignored this. The log book of the factory at the time of the incident too contradicts CBI narratives in its investigations.”

“CBI also ignored vital technical aspects and hounded factory officials in such a manner that people backed off from speaking during investigations, which could have helped in revealing the reality,” stated Roy during his argument in the hearing.

The next hearing of the appeal and the interim application would be on Monday.