Keshub Mahindra, 7 others convicted in Bhopal gas tragedy case

Bhopal, June 7 (PTI) Nearly 26 years after the world's
worst industrial disaster left more than 15,000 dead in the
Bhopal gas tragedy, former Union Carbide India Chairman Keshub
Mahindra and seven others were Monday convicted and sentenced
to two years imprisonment in a judgement that came under
attack from civil rights activists and parties.
Chief Judicial Magistrate Mohan P Tiwari held the
85-year-old non-executive chairman of the Indian subsidiary of
the US based company and gave them punishment under less
stringent provisions of the Indian Penal Code for causing
death by negligence.
89-year-old Warren Anderson, the then Chairman of
Union Carbide Corporation of USA, who lives in the United
States, appeared to have gone scot free for the present as he
is still an absconder and did not not subject himself to
trial. There was no no word about him in the judgement
delivered by CJM Tiwari 23 years after trial commenced.
The US based company reacted to the judgement saying
neither it nor its officials were subject to the jurisdiction
of the Indian court since they were not involved in the
operation of the plant, which was owned and operated by Union
Carbide India Limited.
In his 93-page verdict, Tiwari said the accused were
not sentenced under section 304 Indian Penal Code (culpable
homicide not amounting to murder that provides a maximum of
life imprisonment) since they were old age and were suffering
from serious ailments including heart disease.
Others sentenced were 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 Quereshi, the then Production
Assistant.
All the convicts applied for bail immediately after
the sentencing and were granted relief on a surety of Rs
25,000 each.
The judgement comes against the backdrop of a debate
on the Civil Nuclear Liability bill which national opposition
parties fear does not have provisions for making foreign
suppliers give adequate compensation to victims of nuclear
disasters.
Tiwari pronounced the verdict in a packed court room
convicting 85-year-old Mahindra, the non-executive former
Chairman of UCIL, and seven others in the case relating to
leakage of deadly methyl isocyanate gas in the night
intervening Dec 2 and 3, 1984.
They were held guilty under Sections 304-A (causing
death by negligence) and 336, 337 and 338 (gross negligence)
of the Indian Penal Code.(More) PTI