JOIN USThe fifteen accused in the chimney mishap at Bharat Aluminium Company Ltd’s Korba plant in 2009 will now face the charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder.
Besides, two officials of the Cement Research Institute, Ballabhgarh (Haryana), who had visited the plant after the tragedy, would face charges for causing disappearance of evidence and giving false information to shield offenders.
On Monday, the additional district and sessions court directed offences to be framed for culpable homicide not amounting to murder against the 15 accused including Balco officials Viral Mehta, Deepak Narang, Atul Mahapatra, as well as Shandong Electric Power Construction Corporation’s Woo Chunan, Wang Qung, Lyu Jansan and Gannon Dunkerley and Company Ltd’sManoj Sharma, Alok Verma and Sunil Singh, public prosecutor Ranjana Dutta said. Others against whom the directive has been issued are Vikas Bharti, Sanjay Dev and Shivshakti Pal. Three other officials of the Cement Research Institute, M N Ansari, R K Goswami and (late) U K Mandal were also charged for causing disappearance of evidence of offence, Dutta said. On September 23, 2009, a chimney which was being constructed at BALCO’s power plant came down crashing during rain, killing 40 people.
GDCL was carrying the construction for SEPCO, which had received the contract from BALCO.
Earlier, police had registered charges against the accused under Section 304, 324 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 326 (causing grievous and permanent injuries), 201 and 34 (common intent) of the IPC, Dutta said, adding that the court had removed Section 324, 326 and 34 of the IPC.