Sabotage led to Bhopal gas tragedy: Former plant manager of UCIL

BHOPAL: Gas tragedy that killed thousands was sabotage, claimed the counsel of then production manager of Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) SP Chouhdary, during the hearing at Bhopal district court on Wednesday.
Choudhary is among the 8 Indian accused of the Bhopal Gas Tragedy. Arguments on behalf of one of the Choudhary took place on Wednesday.
On June 7, 2010, a court of chief judicial magistrate sentenced former Union Carbide India Ltd (UCIL) chairman Keshub Mahendra, former managing director Vijay Gokhale, former vice-president Kishore Kamdar, former works manager J Mukund, former production manager S P Choudhary, ex-plant superintendent K V Shetty, ex-production assistant S I Quershi under Section 304-A (causing death by negligence) of Indian Penal Code.There was one more Indian among the accused R B Roychoudhary, then assistant works manager of UCIL, who died during the process of trial. All of them got bail and challenged the verdict of lower court in the district and sessions court Bhopal. Meanwhile CBI has also moved an application for enhancement of punishment to these accused in the same court.
Counsel for SP Choudhary, Anirban Roy argued before court of district and sessions judge Bhopal, Justice Rajeev Dubey.
Roy alleged before court that, "Tragedy was sabotage and design defect theory that the fault in design led to the incident is not based on investigations. We are saying that the investigations were malafide, mischevious motivated and fraudulent and in the whole process they have played a false on the victims who have died. Actual criminals should be brought before the court. Truth must come out. When the tragedy occurred state government constituted a commission named justice N K Singh commission. The commission was working appropriately and UCIL also submitted an affidavit before the commission claiming that the tragedy was sabotage but before the commission could look into it, tenure of commission was not extended”.
Roy requested the court to allow them to have a copy of the case diary of the investigations and also allow them to submit some more evidences. To this court ordered them to submit an application for case diary on August 19 and also make their submissions. SP Choudhary was also present at court during the hearing.
To this senior counsel for CBI, Ejaz Khan told court, “The defence council is trying to delay the case”.