Bhopal gas disaster convicts seek retrial citing flawed investigation

Time of India

15-07-2025

Bhopal: Appearing in the court of the Principal District Judge for two convicts in the Bhopal gas disaster criminal case, J Mukund and S P Chaudhary, senior counsel Anirban Roy on Tuesday presented a compilation of several cases in which the high courts and the Supreme Court of India allowed a retrial of a case under section 464 of the CrPC.
All seven Indian officials of Union Carbide accused in the Bhopal gas disaster criminal case were sentenced to two years of rigorous imprisonment by the CJM court in 2010 and were released on bail from the court itself. They later appealed against the CJM court order in the sessions court in 2011, and the hearing in the case has continued since.
Anirban Roy, who appeared for J Mukund and S P Chaudhary, maintained through the hearings that the investigation by the CBI in the gas disaster case was "malafide, malicious, motivated and fraudulent."
He moved an application under section 468 of the CrPC seeking a retrial in the case, as the charges framed against the accused by the trial court were based on a botched-up CBI investigation.
Following lengthy arguments over days during hearings of the case in support of his argument for a retrial, Roy on Tuesday presented a compilation of cases in the court in which various high courts and the Supreme Court allowed a retrial in cases under section 464 of the CrPC. The hearing in the case would continue on Wednesday.