Window to appeal still open at Bhopal court: CBI

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New Delhi, May 11 : The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Wednesday said the Supreme Court's dismissal of their petition in the Bhopal gas tragedy case was not a set back and the window to appeal is still open.
The apex court Wednesday dismissed the CBI petition seeking more stringent punishment for then United Carbide India Ltd (UCIL) chairman Keshub Mahindra and six others in the gas tragedy case.
'The trial is still going on at a Bhopal court and we will earnestly pursue the case,' CBI spokesperson Dharni Mishra told IANS.
She said the CBI had filed the appeal for stringent punishments in both the apex court and the Bhopal court simultaneously.
'The trial in the Bhopal court is on and we are hopeful. Today's judgment is not a setback,' she said.
The CBI official said the apex court, while dismissing the petition, also mentioned that the 1996 judgment in no way shackled the trial court from framing the charges under the stringent provisions of the criminal procedure code.
'A window is open for us to pursue the matter further,' said Mishra adding she cannot comment of apex court decision.
The investigative agency had moved the apex court, seeking a direction of the framing of charges against Mahindra and others for culpable homicide not amounting to murder that amounts a maximum imprisonment of 10 years.
The accused were convicted by a Bhopal court last year under the less stringent provisions of causing death due to negligence.
The Union Carbide disaster, in which poisonous methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas leaked from the plant on the night of Dec 2-3, 1984, killed 3,000 people instantly and 25,000 over the years. It also affected 100,000 people and estimates are that more than 500,000 continue to suffer from ill effects of the gas.
The CBI moved the apex court after a trial court in Bhopal convicted Mahindra and others under section 304 (A) and awarded them imprisonment of two years.
All the seven accused - Mahindra, then UCIL managing director Vijay Gokhale, vice president Kishore Kamdar, works manager J.N. Mukund, production manager S.P. Choudhary, plant superintendent K.V. Shetty and production assistant S.I. Quereshi - walked away after getting bail.