Indian court to rule on Bhopal disaster charges
An Indian court was to decide today whether to lessen charges against the former chairman of US-based Union Carbide for a 1984 gas leak that left thousands of people dead in one of the world’s worst industrial accidents.
Warren Anderson originally was charged with “culpable homicide,” which carries a sentence of up to 20 years, but prosecutors have asked that the court reduce the charge to “hurt by negligence”.
Anderson, whose whereabouts were not known, faces a maximum sentence of two years if convicted in absentia of the lesser charge. Anderson has refused to appear in court in India since the case opened in 1992.
A verdict was initially expected yesterday but the Chief Judicial Magistrate’s Court deferred making the decision until today, a court official said on condition of anonymity.
The leak of deadly methyl isocyanate gas from the Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, the capital of central Madhya Pradesh state, killed 4,000 people within hours on the night of December 2, 1984.
Over the years, the death toll has risen to 14,410 as those sickened by the gas later died, the government says.
Survivors still complain of ailments - ranging from breathlessness, constant tiredness and stomach pain to cardiac problems and tuberculosis.
Prosecutors said in May that India’s Foreign Ministry had asked them to seek lesser charges against Anderson, but declined to elaborate on that request.
The Bhobal Gas Women Victims Organisation, a group that lobbies for the victims, has alleged that the Indian government was seeking to appease the United States by seeking the reduction of charges.
Nine Indians who had worked as executives at the gas plant already have had charges against them reduced, and prosecutors say Anderson should be given similar treatment. If the court agrees, India may stop seeking his extradition.
Union Carbide paid the Indian government $470m (€478m) as part of an out-of-court settlement in 1989. The company accepted moral responsibility for the disaster, but said the plant was sabotaged by a disgruntled employee.
Dow Chemical Company, of Michigan, acquired Connecticut-based Union Carbide in February 2001.
