The CBI may file a supplementary charge-sheet before the trial court after the government decides to file a curative petition in the Supreme Court for restoration of the stringent charges invoked by the CBI in its earlier chargesheet against the accused.
Sources said that in the supplementary chargesheet the agency would seek to frame charges against those whose names had appeared in the FIR registered with the Hanuman Ganj police station in Bhopal on December 3, 1984 but were not chargesheeted as the CBI did not have sufficient evidence at the time.
Since the CBI in its chargesheet of December 1, 1987 had reserved its right to file a supplementary chargesheet subject to collection of sufficient evidence, their names were withheld from the earlier chargesheet.
“There are two persons — Yathin Rai Chowdhary and Shakil Ibrahim — both former top UCIL officials, whose names appeared in the FIR but not in the chargesheet,” sources said. The inspector (in charge) of Hanuman Ganj police station, Mr Surinder Singh Thakur, who lodged the FIR on December 3, 1984, had said in his report: “After reaching the Union Carbide factory and (after) investigation at the spot it was found that ... no step was taken to stop the leaking of the poisonous gas by J. Mukund, K.V. Shetty, S.P. Choudhary, Yathin Rai Chowdhary, Shakil Ibrahim and their operator staff of the factory”.
The FIR lodged at Bhopal’s Hanuman Ganj police station on December 3, 1984 in connection with the gas disaster clearly said that Yathin Rai Chowdhary and Shakil Ibrahim were equally responsible for the leaking of the poisonous gas, sources said, adding that apart from these two persons, the agency collected evidence against other persons whose names had been mentioned in the FIR. Besides, evidence was collected against some more UCIL top officials during its investigation, sources added.