Judgement day: Eight convicted for Bhopal gas tragedy

Judgement day: Eight convicted for Bhopal gas tragedy

bhopal






Bhopal, June 8 (UNI) Scripting judicial history, a local court sentenced eminent Indian industrialist Keshub Mahindra and six other persons to two years' imprisonment and fines of Rs 1 lakh each in the criminal case relating to the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy, which was the world's worst industrial disaster.
Chief Judicial Magistrate Mohan P Tiwari yesterday also pronounced Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) guilty under the Indian Penal Code's Section 304(a) and imposed a fine of Rs 5 lakh. Mahindra and five other accused were present in court while S I Qureshi is undergoing treatment at Indore. His son was present.

Besides Mahindra, UCIL's then managing director Vijay Gokhale, then vice-president Kishore Kamdar, then works manager J Mukund, then production manager S P Choudhary, then plant superintendent K B Shetty and then plant production assistant Qureshi were convicted.

On the intervening night of December 2 and 3, 1984, 40 tonnes of highly volatile and toxic methyl isocyanate stored at a pesticide plant owned by UCIL -- a subsidiary of Union Carbide Corporation (UCC), United States -- got contaminated with water and other impurities. A mixture of deadly gases escaped from the factory killing thousands and grievously affecting thousands of others.

Warren Anderson was then UCC chairman.

UNI