CBI allowed to seek Anderson’s extradition

A Delhi court on Wednesday permitted the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to seek the extradition of US-based former Union Carbide chief Warren Anderson in connection with the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy, dubbed the world’s worst industrial disaster.

Taking up a plea by the CBI, Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Vinod Yadav allowed the federal investigating agency to seek Anderson’s extradition.

?Why should the plea not be allowed as from 1992 till 2010 the CBI was regularly trying to extradite Anderson. This relates to sentiments of thousands of victim’s families,” Yadav said.

Considering the entire facts in its holistic perspective and sentiments of the disaster-hit people, I deem it appropriate and in the interest of justice that he be extradited,? the judge said.

He added, ?Here is no bar in law in seeking the extradition of Warren Anderson from the US authorities. Request of the CBI is allowed.?

In its plea before the court, the CBI had submitted that it had prima-facie evidence that Anderson should be made to stand trial.

Anderson, now 90, had been proclaimed offender by the Bhopal chief judicial magistrate in 1993 after he jumped bail, which he had procured following his arrest on Dec 7, 1984.

He had flown out of India soon after his bail, never to return.

On the intervening night of 2/3 December 1984, the inhabitants of the city of Bhopal became victims of the world’s worst industrial disaster.

40 tonnes of methyl iscocyanate (MIC – a highly volatile toxic chemical) stored at the pesticide plant – owned by Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL), a subsidiary of Union Carbide Corporation (UCC), USA – was contaminated with water and other impurities.

As a result, a mixture of deadly gases escaped from the factory killing several thousands of people and inflicting grievous injuries on at least 500,000 others.

Last year, a lower court in Bhopal had awarded mere two years of imprisonment to seven convicted Union Carbide officials for the incident.