The ruling Congress Wednesday said the government should make every effort to extradite from the US Warren Anderson, the CEO of Union Carbide when the Bhopal gas tragedy took place in 1984.
‘The Congress is of the firm opinion that the extradition process should be completed and he (Anderson) should be brought back. We hope government will take it to its logical conclusion,’ Congress spokesperson Jayanthi Natarajan said.
She asked the government to take all steps to ensure that the perpetrators of the tragedy had been brought to book.
Union Law Minister M. Veerappa Moily had said Tuesday that the case of criminal culpability against Anderson is ‘not yet closed’ and he can still be tried.
Pointing out that the chargesheet by the Central Bureau of Investigation included Anderson as one of the accused in the Dec 2-3, 1984, Bhopal gas leak case, Moily said: ‘Accused should be present during (filing of) chargesheet… he has been declared an absconder… That does not mean the case is closed against him. He can be procured.’
Anderson, 89, is now retired and lives in the US.
A trial court Friday convicted seven officials of Union Carbide India Limited to two years in jail for the incident.
The gas leak from the pesticide plant, that killed over 3,000 people instantly and many others later, is widely regarded as one of world’s biggest industrial disasters.
