Jabalpur (MP): Facing flak for alleged
shoddy prosecution in the 1984 Bhopal gas leak case, the CBI
has accepted that its prosecution was not good as compared to
the accused who brought a battery of lawyers to defend them.
"CBI accused come in court with an entire team of lawyers
as compared to our side which has just one Public Prosecutor.
In Bhopal (gas leak) case also there used to be a team of
five-six advocates from the side of the accused," CBI director
Ashwani Kumar said on the sidelines of a function here.
Kumar said after seeing this, the CBI has also decided
to follow the same to improve the prosecution.
The director said while the agency`s investigations were
good, the problem area was prosecution and trial. "Our
investigations are good but our weakness is prosecution and
trial. We want to focus on these areas more."
Kumar, however, added that trial was not in agency`s
hand and matter totally in the court domain.
The CBI director had a word of advice to look ahead and
not to conduct "post-mortem of a 25-year-old case".
Kumar said the effort should be that such a tragedy
never happens again, but if happens, then victims should be
given immediate relief and those behind the incident should be
punished.
He also defended the decision of the court saying that
maximum punishment that could have been given as per the
chargesheet has been given.
He said the court gives its decision on the basis of the
chargesheet.
The chargesheet was according to the Supreme Court and we
were able to get maximum punishment according to that, Kumar
said.
PTI
