Asia-Pacific
8 sentenced for 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy in India
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-06-07 21:25
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BHOPAL, India - An Indian court Monday sentenced eight people to two years in jail in the 1984 Bhopal gas disaster in which over 20,000 were killed by toxic chemicals leaked from a Union Carbide pesticide plant in the central state of Madhya Pradesh's capital.
All the convicted, including one who had already died during the trial, were former top-ranking Indian employees of the US- based Union Carbide's Indian arm Union Carbide India Limited.
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However, all the convicts got bail for a surety of 25,000 rupees ($500) each soon after the sentence was awarded.
Meanwhile, the Union Carbide's Indian arm is found guilty and fined of 500,000 rupees ($10,000) for the gas leak.
A total of 178 witnesses were examined in the trial and 3,008 documents were produced while eight defense witnesses deposed in the court. However, the then Chief Executive Officer of the Union Carbide Warren Anderson is not convicted as he is still absconding.
The highest ranking former official to be convicted is Keshub Mahindra, the current Chairman of top utility vehicle and tractor maker Mahindra and Mahindra, who was the chairman of the Union Carbide India Ltd at the time of the accident. He is out on bail.
Others found guilty are Vijay Gokhle, the then Managing Director of UCIL, Kishore Kamdar, the then Vice President, J. N. Mukund, the then Works Manager, S. P. Choudhary, the then Production Manager, K. V. Shetty, the then Plant Superintendent and S. I. Quershi, the then Production Assistant. Qureshi did not appear before the court due to ill health. Another accused R.B. Chaudhary died during the trial.
All of them were held guilty under Sections 304-A (causing death by negligence), 304-II (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 336, 337 and 338 (gross negligence) of the Indian Penal Code and faces a sentence of up to two years in jail or a fine.
Those convicted can appeal to a higher court.
The victims and social activists flayed the verdict and called it a joke.
"It is nothing. We are looking at maximum punishment of two years or a fine. This is a joke," Samanvaya Singh, a Bhopal rights activist, said.
"This does not make sense at all. I am really shocked. I am sure no one in the world understands our pain," another activist Sutapa Ray said.
The victims of the tragedy also expressed their grief over the judgment.
One N. Harsha, who lost his eyes due to the impact of the gas, said that "it was too little too late. We were certainly not waiting for this."
Another victim, Rekha Chaturvedi, who was pregnant at that time, underwent a miscarriage due to exposure to poisonous gas. She has never been able to conceive again since then.
"We would not have pursued for so long had we known that this is what we are going to get in the end," Rekha said.
Interestingly, the verdict in Bhopal applied only to Indian officials of the former Union Carbide's Indian arm while separate cases have been filed against the company and its overseas officials.
"It is a travesty of justice. This is no justice. It is a message to the multinationals that they can come and pollute and kill and leave without any punishment," Rachana Dhingra, an activist of Bhopal Group for Information and Action, told the media.
Added Rasheeda Bi, another activist from Bhopal: "We will not give up. Going to the higher court is a natural progression. But we have resolved to fight till our last breath."
The Bhopal gas disaster was an industrial catastrophe which occurred at the Union Carbide's pesticide plant in Bhopal. Around midnight on the intervening night of December 2 to 3, 1984, the plant released methyl isocyanate gas and other toxins which settled over slums in the city, resulting in the exposure of over 500,000 people.
Some 20 years ago Union Carbide paid $470 million in compensation to the Indian government. It said it had settled its liabilities to the Indian government before being bought over by Dow Chemical.