1984 Bhopal Gas Tragedy: No police record about who let Anderson on bail
By ANIMonday, July 19, 2010
BHOPAL - The Madhya Pradesh Assembly was on Monday informed that no record was found in Bhopal’s Hanumanganj police station with regard to the bail given to former Union Carbide chief Warren Anderson and two others soon after the December 1984 Bhopal Gas Tragedy.
In a written reply to a question from Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Girija Shanker Sharma, Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Uma Shanker Gupta, said: “As per the records available in the police station, Anderson was arrested on December 7, 1984 and released on bail after which he went to New Delhi by the State government’s plane.”
“Information about awards given to other persons in this regard was not available with the department,” he added.
The names of two others mentioned in the records are UCIL Chairman Keshub Mahindra and former UCIL Managing Director V P Gokhale.
The Group of Ministers (GoM) constituted to examine all aspects of the 1984 Bhopal gas disaster, seeking Anderson’s extradition apart from measures to clean up the disaster site, had submitted the report to Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh on June 21.
The GoM had dealt with all the issues - compensation, legal issues, including the issue of the extradition of Warren Anderson, the legal options available to the Government of India, and most importantly, remediation matters, and health related matters.
Union Carbide settled its liabilities to the Indian government in 1989 by paying 470 million dollars before being bought by another US company, Dow Chemical.
In the early hours of Dec. 3, 1984, around 40 metric tonnes of toxic Methyl Isocyanate (MIC) gas leaked into the atmosphere and was carried by the wind to the surrounding slums. (ANI)
