Anderson freed on orders from the top: ex-Collector
New Delhi/ Bhopal: Warren Anderson, former chairman of the American parent company Union CarbideCorp responsible for the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy, got out of India on the government’s order.
Moti Singh, who was the District Collector of Bhopal at the time of gas leak from the Union Carbide plant, said this to CNN-IBN on Wednesday. He alleged Brahm Swaroop, Chief Secretary of Madhya Pradesh at the time, called him and the Superintendent of Police (SP) personally and asked him to release Anderson. Anderson was arrested on December 7 but he was released the same day and flew out of Bhopal in a state government plane to New Delhi, said Singh. Several Union Carbide officials were arrested on December 7 and kept at the company guesthouse after the gas leak on December 1, which was declared a temporary police station.
"At around 2 pm in the afternoon the Chief Secretary summoned me to his chamber in the Secretariat. We went there -- he (Chief Secretary) said Mr Anderson was to be released and sent to Delhi by plane which was awaiting him at the airport. We did legal formalities and Anderson was released on bail. He was put on the plane and he went to Delhi,” said Singh.
The former official said he was never given reasons why Anderson was being released. Singh claimed Anderson wanted to visited areas affected by the gas leak but he was told there was a threat to his life.
"He was reluctant to leave immediately. He said he wanted to see the affected areas and meet the people. I told him he was not welcome in Bhopal and that there was risk to his life and in no case he could be allowed to go to the affected areas.”
The former district collector claimed Anderson seemed casual and showed “symptoms of arrogance” but toned down when he was told that he was being released.
Singh recalls Anderson briefed him on how the deadly methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas "leaks, how it works” and what wind direction it will take. Singh says Anderson’s information tallied with what was happening in the city.
Anderson was charged with culpable homicide not amounting to murder, grievous assault and killing and poisoning human beings and animals due to leakage of the MIC gas from the Union Carbide's pesticide plant in Bhopal.
A Bhopal trial court on Monday convicted eight Indian officials of Union Carbide for their criminal negligence that triggered the world's worst industrial disaster, but Anderson was not mentioned in the judgment.
Law Minister Veerappa Moily on Tuesday told CNN-IBN the “case” against Anderson was not closed and blamed a former Central Bureau of Investigation officer, who had investigated the gas leak, of not pressing for the American’s extradition.
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