The Chief Judicial Magistrate Court in Bhopal will announce the verdict on the 1984 gas tragedy tomorrow. Vijay Gokhale, one of the three co-accused from Mumbai, says he is not nervous
The Chief Judicial Magistrate Court in Bhopal will announce the verdict on the 1984 gas tragedy tomorrow. Vijay Gokhale, one of the three co-accused from Mumbai, says he is not nervous
Twenty-six years after the Bhopal Gas tragedy, The Chief Judicial Magistrate Court in Bhopal is set to announce the verdict tomorrow, Monday, June 7 on the toxic leak that occurred at the Bhopal factory of the now defunct Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL).
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| Though the water here is contaminated even two decades after the gas disaster, locals staying around the Union Carbide factory have no alternative but to use it |
The prosecution is the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). The accused: Keshub Mahindra, then non-executive chairman of UCIL; Vijay Gokhale, then managing director of UCIL; Kishore Kamdar, then former vice-president of UCIL-Mumbai; J Mukund, then former works manager of UCIL-Mumbai; S P Chouhary, then production manager of UCIL-Mumbai; K V Shetty, then plant superintendent of UCIL-Mumbai and SI Qureshi, then production assistant of UCIL-Mumbai. Warren Anderson, former chairman of Union Carbide also an accused, is absconding.
The top three, Keshub Mahindra, Vijay Gokhale and Kishore Kamdar are all Mumbaikars. When Sunday Mid Day contacted Mahindra, he said he did not wish to comment. Yet, in an indication of how the accused have carried the baggage of the tragedy through their lives, in 2002, Mahindra, now chairman Mahindra & Mahindra, had decided to decline the prestigious Padma Bhushan that was conferred on him, following protests by supporters of the gas tragedy victims.
"It was important to put absolute sanctity of the national awards above personal satisfaction," Mahindra had said in a report, while turning down the award.u00a0u00a0
Mumbai-based Gokhale who had earlier admitted that the Union Carbide tragedy was like a shadow that had tailed him all his life, said, "We all hope there is some kind of closure." Gokhale said though the uncertainly had been a "continual strain", he was not nervous about Monday's verdict. "We all are tough in that way," he said.
Gokhale and the co-accused have had to make numerous trips to Bhopal, with the case dragging for 23 years, and every trip "..does not have very good memories."
Gokhale says the Indian Bhopal plant was designed by the US Corporation, and in 1983, one year before the gas leak, it had won recognition in the National Safety Council journal. He refused to talk further since the matter is sub-judice. But in 2004, when the world marked 20 years of the tragedy, Gokhale had told this paper, "I cannot leave Bhopal behind. How can I? The trial is still on, it is with me forever."
The accused can go for appeal to the Sessions Court, followed by the Jabalpur Court and finally, the Supreme Court.
20 years to the tragedy "My family and friends stood rock solid behind me all the way. However, social acquaintances had a field day. At parties some of the jabs I took were: 'Are you Nathuram Godse or Vijay Gokhale?' Another went, 'How many more people are you going to kill?'"
Vijay Gokhale in an interview to Mid Day in 2004The Bhopal gas tragedy unfolded on December 3, 1984. The Union Carbide plant in Bhopal accidentally released methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas, exposing more than 5,00,000 people to MIC and other chemicals. The Madhya Pradesh government confirmed a total of 3,787 deaths related to the gas leak. Others put the figure at 25,000.
