COURT-BHOPAL 2

Except Quershi, all the seven others, including Mahindra,
were present in the court. A ninth accused R B Roy Choudhary,
the then former Assistant Works Manager of UCIL, Mumbai, had
died during the course of the trial.
A total of 178 prosecution witnesses were examined in the
trial and 3008 documents were produced while eight defence
witnesses deposed in the court.
Anderson, who did not face trial, is based in the US. The
companies--Union Carbide Corporation, USA and Union Carbide
Eastern, Hong Kong--were also not represented in the trial.
FIR in the tragedy was filed on December 3, 1984 and the
case was transferred to Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI)
on December 6, 1984. The CBI filed the chargesheet after
investigation on December 1, 1987. Subsequently, a local court
had framed charges against the accused.
CBI counsel C Sahay had argued that defective design of
UCIL and its poor maintenance resulted into the tragedy that
had left 2259 dead immediately after the mishap. The lingering
effects of the highly poisonous methyl isocyanate killed over
15,000 people.
Sahay contended that Union Carbide Corporation, USA, in
its survey of the factory in 1982 had found serious safety and
maintenance lapses on nearly 10 counts.
The prosecution argued that even after UCC experts' team
visit to the factory, adequate safety measures and maintenance
works were not undertaken in UCIL.
A Central team, which visited the UCIL plant post-tragedy
in 1984, also found lapses in safety norms and maintenance,
the counsel had said. MORE PTI