CBI holding up speedy trial against Union Carbide?s parent firms

NEW DELHI: Union Carbide Corporation (UCC), USA, was first declared absconder for the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy by the district court in 1992. And, in 2010, the UPA woke up again to push the criminal case against the company, and asked the CBI to take up the matter before courts on an urgent basis. However, the case is still stuck where it was since the Madhya Pradesh high court stayed the summoning of the firm on criminal charges in 2005.

Even after the UPA group of ministers decided that the case should be pursued in Madhya Pradesh high court to decide the liability of Dow Chemicals and UCC, USA, it took the CBI a good two years to file an application seeking urgent hearing. Oddly, when the case did come up, the agency did not oppose repeated adjournments sought by another Dow firm - Dow Chemicals International Private Limited.

The case against Warren Anderson, former chairman and CEO of UCC, may have got highlighted more in public domain, but for all practical reasons it is the pursuit of criminal cases against the companies that would make a difference in resolving the case 28 years after the tragedy rather than the extradition of the 93-year-old man.

The group of ministers, headed by P Chidambaram, had decided in June, 2010, that the ministry of chemicals and fertilizers and the CBI should get the HC to expedite the decision on the liability of UCC's new parent companies. The court had granted a stay on the summons against both Dow Chemicals and UCC, USA, in 2005, and since then neither has the case been decided nor the stay revoked.

In September, 2010, the then solicitor general had noted that the CBI did not need to file any separate application as it was party to the case, and all it had to do was to seek urgent hearings.

The agency, though, dragged its feet, and filed a request for an early hearing only in January, 2012. Since then the Dow associate has sought four adjournments and the CBI never opposed the move, belittling its own intent of seeking a speedy trial.

Source: http://rss.feedsportal.com/c/33039/f/555218/p/1/s/51aedb54/l/0Ltimesofindia0Bindiatimes0N0Cindia0CCBI0Eholding0Eup0Espeedy0Etrial0Eagainst0EUnion0ECarbides0Eparent0Efirms0Carticleshow0C149193760Bcms/story01.htm

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