Bhopal gas leak verdict: Too little, too late
Bhopal: The verdict in the worst industrial disaster that claimed more than 15,000 lives and impacted generations was delivered on Monday by Chief Judicial Magistrate Mohan P Tiwari, who awarded eight former officers of Union Carbide India Limited a maximum of two years imprisonment and imposed a fine Rs 1 lakh each.
On the intervening night of December 2 and 3, 1984 almost 40 tonnes of the deadly methyl isocyanate leaked from a tank in the UCIL plant in Bhopal killing hundreds of people immediately and many more over the next few days. The Bhopal gas tragedy verdict has taken almost 26 years to come, but has justice been done? Out of the eight people convicted and sentenced, seven attended the hearing in Bhopal and immediately got bail on a surety of Rs 25,000each. The court also fined UCIL Rs 5 lakh. But there was no conviction for former Union Carbide chairman Warren Anderson, who was declared absconder by the court in 2009.
"What kind of justice is this? Is there no cost to human life?" asked Rashida Bi, one of the victims of Bhopal gas tragedy after the verdict.
"The fight will continue. We will approach the higher courts. We will move Jabalpur High Court and then to the Supreme Court," said another victim Sakti Pathak.
Immediately after methyl isocyanate leaked on the intervening night of December 2 and 3, 1984 death and devastation spread all over Bhopal and Anderson is widely considered to be the real culprit. Even after being declared an absconder he continues to dodge the Indian judiciary.
The most important question that has arisen post the verdict is will Anderson himself ever be brought before a court of law in India. Why has he not been produced before an Indian court for the last 25 years? Why have the US authorities not been able to trace or extradite him? Why was the charge in this case diluted from 304 Part 2 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) to 304 A which is death by criminal negligence?
The former charge could have invited even the death penalty to the convicted while the latter only had a maximum punishment of two years in jail.
"Justice has been delayed and that is what we need to address," Union Law Minister M Veerappa Moily said.
Politically too the victims have got little or no support other than routine assurances.
In Madhya Pradesh as well in New Delhi different governments have come to power since 1984. But the fate of the Bhopal gas victims never really changed.
"I ask the Government of India to make new laws for such tragedies or the present law should be amended," said Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan.
So for lakhs of Bhopal gas victims the fight for justice starts all over again.
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