Justice Delayed is justice denied!

Bhopal tragedy accused sentenced to 2 years in prison

* Former chairman of Union Carbide USA goes scot free

Twenty-five years after the Bhopal gas tragedy killed over 20,000 people, a local court in Bhopal convicted former Union Carbide of India Limited (UCIL) chairman Keshub Mahindra and seven others in the case, awarding each of them two years in prison.

Bhopal: 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 Indian Penal Code.

What is the Bhopal Gas Disaster?

The world's worst ever industrial disaster took place on the night of 2-3 December 1984, when a tank full of deadly methyl isocyanate gas exploded in a fertilizer plant owned by UCIL. Over 40,000 kg of the toxic, colorless gas wafted over the sleeping city. People who breathed the gas suffered symptoms ranging from suffocation, blindness and vomiting to spontaneous abortions, lung, kidney, liver and brain damage. Initially, nearly 4,000 people died and over a lakh suffered injuries. Latest estimates put number of deaths at over 20,000 and injured at nearly 6 lakh.

Could the disaster have been prevented?

Investigations have shown that a series of negligent decisions by the management led to the explosion. The highly reactive gas is supposed to be kept at temperatures below 5°C, under pressure. However, the refrigeration system had been shut down since June 1984. The tank and valves that regulate gas flow were also defective. There was no safety system in place. There was no warning system for localities surrounding the factory. Lessons had not been drawn from earlier accidents in the same plant. It appears that the management cut corners to save costs.

Have the victims been properly compensated?

On 14 February 1989, SC announced that it had approved a settlement between the Central government and Union Carbide settling all compensation claims and criminal matters. Under this deal, Carbide paid Rs 713 crore as compensation. Of this, Rs 113 crore was paid to those with damage to property or cattle deaths. The remaining Rs 600 crore was to be distributed to kin of 3,000 dead and 1 lakh injured. The casualty figures were arbitrarily arrived at since no scientific survey was done. As it turned out, the number of dead increased to 20,000 and number of injured shot up to 5.73 lakh. Since the compensation amount was already fixed and deposited, it was distributed among five times the number of victims. Thus, on an average, each victim has received just Rs 12,410. Two installments of compensation have been given till now to the injured.

What happened to criminal charges against Carbide officials?

In 1989, all criminal charges against Carbide were dropped. This led to such an uproar that in 1991, SC decided to allow reopening of cases. However, in 1996, the SC directed the charges be converted from culpable homicide (which carries a max sentence of 10 years) to death due to negligence (with maximum sentence of two years). The accused included Warren Anderson. Since Anderson was allowed to flee, a Bhopal court issued a non-bailable warrant against him in 1992. After dragging its feet for 12 years, the government formally asked for his extradition in 2004. But the US government rejected the request.

Citizen asks: Is this Justice or travesty of justice? Wasn't the long delay avoidable?

Citizen feels: Always the big fishes escape the net of justice. Inquiries, commissions, reports, law procedures against them are mere farce! Those in the corridors of power know how to evade and escape the laws. Laws are made by them to oppress the common citizens.