Told to give quick bail for Anderson: former Bhopal DM

Bhopal/Hyderabad, Jun 9 (PTI) More skeletons tumbled
out on Wednesday in the Bhopal gas tragedy case of how former
Union Carbide CEO Warren Anderson got bail immediately after
his arrest but the then CBI chief rejected claims the agency
was asked not to pursue his extradition.
The role of Arjun Singh, who was Madhya Pradesh chief
minister when the disaster struck, has also come under the
scanner with reports that a state plane was provided to fly
Anderson from Bhopal to Delhi on December 7, 1984, three days
after the gas leak. Singh was not available for comments.
With the verdict in the case coming under all round
attack, the Central government on Wednesday reconstituted a
Group of Ministers (GoM) to go into a range of issues
including the relief and rehabilitation of victims and their
families.
The Congress party, whose governments at the Centre
and in Madhya Pradesh have come under attack at the time of
gas leak and later, sought to fob off criticism and demanded
that Government should take quick steps for Anderson's
extradition.
On top of a former Central Bureau of Investigation
(CBI) official's charge on Anderson's extradition, the then
District Magistrate of Bhopal came out with his version of how
he was asked to ensure bail for the carbide official hours
after his arrest.
"They (Anderson and others) came to Bhopal from Bombay
by service flight. They were taken into police custody at the
airport and taken to the Union Carbide guest house where they
were told that they were under arrest and they were lodged in
three separate rooms and the formality of arrest was
completed," former DM Moti Singh told reporters in India's
central city Bhopal.
Then, he said, around 2 PM (Dec 7, 1984), the Chief
Secretary called the SP and the DM to his office and told them
to release Anderson and put him in the same plane waiting in
the airport to go to Delhi.
"Accordingly, we went to the place where he was
lodged. We observed the formalities of granting him bail. A
Carbide employee stood surety and thereafter he was released
on bail, taken to the airport and put on a State plane to New
Delhi," Singh said.
In Hyderabad, former CBI Director K Vijayarama Rao
Wednesday rejected claims of a former joint direct B R Lall
the agency was asked not not to pursue Anderson's extradition
from the US.
"The Government of India as well as the CBI did
everything they could to extradite Anderson from the US. But,
the US refused to allow it," Rao told reporters.
"Their (USA) claim was that the Union Carbide factory
was only a holding and that this man (Anderson) cannot be held
responsible as he is not directly involved in the running of
the factory. We can, however, hold him morally responsible
(for the Bhopal gas tragedy)," the former CBI Director said.
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