The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday did not oppose in the sessions court here the Madhya Pradesh government’s appeal seeking enhancement of sentence passed by the trial court against those convicted in the Bhopal gas disaster case.
This case would now come up for hearing in the sessions court on July 27. If the CBI also files an appeal against the June 7 order of the chief judicial magistrate, it would get clubbed with the appeal filed by the state government along with the criminal revision application filed by a gas victim and two NGOs.
Though it did not oppose the state government’s appeal, the CBI on Friday brought to the notice of the sessions court here the Supreme Court ruling that a state government is barred from appealing against acquittal in cases investigated by the CBI or any other central agency in the disproportionate assets case against Lalu Prasad Yadav and his wife Rabri Devi.
Besides the appeal by the state government, a revision application for enhancement of sentence passed by the trial court was submitted earlier in the sessions court by Sajida Bano Khan, who is a widow and also a gas victim, along with Bhopal Gas Peedith Mahila Udyog Sanghathan and Bhopal Gas Peedith Sangharsh Sahayog Samiti. They have sought for the convicts maximum fine and separate sentences of imprisonment up to the maximum permissible limit of 14 years for each death.