A court here on Monday convicted all the seven accused, including the former chairman of Union Carbide, Keshub Mahindra, in the Bhopal gas tragedy case and awarded them a maximum of two years' imprisonment.
They were released on bail later in the evening.
The verdict came 26 years after the tragedy on the night of December 2-3, 1984 ravaged the city, killing over 3,000 people immediately and thousands more in the following months.
Dozens of tonnes of poisonous methylisocyanate gas leaked out from the Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) plant and over 35,000 people were killed in the aftermath of the leak, according to rights activists.
Warren Anderson, chairman of the U.S.-based Union Carbide group, who was named an ‘accused' in the tragedy, was absconding throughout the trial period. Interestingly, the court did not mention his name on Monday.
The judgment pronounced by Chief Judicial Magistrate Mohan P. Tiwari convicted Mr. Mahindra, production assistant S.I. Quereshi, production manager S.P. Choudhary, plant superintendent K.V. Shetty, manager J.N. Mukund, vice-president Kishore Kumar and managing director Vijay Gokhale.
The eighth accused is the UCIL. The ninth accused, R.B. Roychoudhary, died in the course of trial.
The accused were convicted under Sections 304-A (causing death by negligence), 304(II) (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 336, 337 and 338 (gross negligence) of the IPC.
Hundreds examined
The trial, which ran for over 23 turbulent years, saw the examination of hundreds of prosecution-side witnesses and deposition by eight defence-side witnesses before over a dozen judges. Documents running into thousands of pages were produced during the trial.
The FIR was lodged on December 3, 1984 and the CBI filed the charge sheet on December 1, 1987.
The prosecution charged the company with not heeding the feedback on inadequate safety norms and reports about other maintenance lapses.
Terming the verdict a “delayed-thus-denied justice,” NGO workers and activists said the $470 million paid by Union Carbide 20 years ago could never draw the veil over the heinous crime committed by the corporate giant.
Protest by victims
PTI reports:
Disappointed with the verdict, scores of gas victims staged a protest on the court premises and raised slogans against Mr. Anderson.
Reacting to the judgment, the U.S.-based company said neither it nor its officials were subject to the jurisdiction of the Indian court as they were not involved in the operation of the plant, which was owned and operated by the UCIL.
Correction
In the above report, there was an error in the eighth paragraph that stated the charges under which the accused were convicted — “ Section 304(II) culpable homicide …”. The accused were charged under 304(II) culpable homicide but the Supreme Court had diluted the charges to 304A in a 1996 order.
Keywords: Bhopal gas tragedy, Union Carbide, Keshub Mahindra, Warren Anderson, verdict
30000 lives and 2 years imprisonment is injustice to all those innocent judiciary must view the matter in detail i accept it was culpable homeocide and with negligence but matter should further investigated.
Punishment is a utter shame. No value for human lives. Indians should wake up. They should stop buying all the products from this company.
Shame on judiciary. It takes so many years to give judgment?
I felt ashame on the Judges...For this 2 years imprisonment they took 26 years! even then the criminals were released in bail... Where goes the Indian bar counsil... people raising their voices for silly reasons.. this is the place where we have to think as a Human as a India.. go get justice for the Victims... we should think what can be done from every citizens end.. to get justice. The judges should explain or publish the detailed statement to justify their 2 years imprisonment. If US is not subject to the jurisdiction of the Indian court as they were not involved in the operation of the plant, which was owned and operated by the UCIL. What will be the governments reaction for all other Us investment which cause harm to the people... Why Indian government giving approval to these kinds of projects with out proper auditng.. or checking th esafety measures? Every Indian should think... India a big country... good place for Foreign investments, Why.. we are not asking questions when things goes wrong.. every thing was covered by MONEY!!!
I am surprised that the how could the accused be bailed on account of taking 30,000+ lives. Moreover, the punishment given doesn't justifies the fatal accident. It should not be named as Industrial Disaster but homicide.
It was proved from the verdict of bhopal tradegy,"India was one of the largest and powerless democracy".The quantum of loss is huge in this tradegy,but we got verdict very late.We should learn lessons from the past,this kind of havoc should never repeat again in our soil.Government must ensure the victims to get justice.The Protest came in the wake of judgement shows the trauma is still alive in people minds.
At least 3,000 people were killed instantly and there afterwards due to the gas leak. More than 500,000 people were affected by gas-related diseases. What about the plight of villagers who have demanded that the Michigan-based Dow Chemical, the company that bought Union Carbide, clean up the soil and underground water at the factory site and the surrounding shanties, which were contaminated with carcinogenic chemicals such as benzene and mercury? Thousands of residents continue to suffer from chronic illnesses such as poor eyesight and respiratory and gynecological problems. What is the remedy for this malice? GOI must come out with a white paper on this episode of the tragedy and its course of action to support them.
Hi Editor,
I have been wondering why Indian Coutrs taking this much time to complete the case. I dont think this is fair. Justice delayed is Justice denied.
Please try to make an article on big cases in India, which have been running for a years. So that everybody understands the performance of Indian Courts.
Thank you,
Amarnadh Js
Where we are making mistakes. As a common man i feel ashamed in judgment made. We could have at-least concerned about the humanitarian rights..
2 Years Imprisonment after 26 years of Luxury for a man who was responsible for the death of more than 3000 fellow country men. The judicial system has to improve!!
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