Over 25 years after the deadly gas leak at the Union Carbide plant here in December 1984, which killed over 20,000 people and critically wounded hundreds of thousands others, Bhopal’s chief judicial magistrate Mohan P. Tiwari on Monday delivered judgment in the criminal case that followed — sentencing all seven accused, including then Union Carbide India Ltd (UCIL) chief Keshub Mahindra, to two years in jail under Section 304-A (causing death by negligence) of the Indian Penal Code and a fine of Rs 1 lakh each.
While convicting the accused, the CJM’s court also granted bail to all those convicted on a personal bond of Rs 25,000 and a security of like amount.
Besides 85-year-old Mr Mahindra, now chairman of automotive firm Mahindra and Mahindra, the six others from UCIL (now defunct) sentenced on Monday include its then managing director V.P. Gokhale, then vice-president Kishore Kamdar, then Bhopal plant works manager J. Mukund, plant production manager S.P. Choudhary, plant superintendent K.V. Shetty and plant production assistant Shakeel Qureshi. Another accused, then assistant works manager R.B. Roy Chaudhary, died in the course of the trial.
But 89-year-old Warren Anderson, chairman of Union Carbide Corporation (UCIL’s parent company) at the time of the disaster, who was named the main accused days after the gas leak, appears to have gone scot-free for now. He did not subject himself to trial and is still an absconder. There was no word about him in Monday’s order.
The CJM’s court also imposed a fine of Rs 5 lakhs against UCIL under Section 304-A IPC. All the accused were also sentenced to three months’ jail and fined Rs 250 each under Section 336 IPC; to six months’ jail and a fine of Rs 500 each under Section 337 IPC; and one-year jail and a fine of Rs 1,000 each under Section 338 IPC. The company has been sentenced to pay the same fine under Sections 336, 337 and 338 IPC.
The CJM has given all those convicted a month’s time to file appeals, if any.
After the court completed the process of pronouncing judgment and sentencing the accused, CBI counsel C. Sahay told this newspaper that under Section 338 IPC, there can be a maximum sentence of two years. In this case, the court has passed a sentence of one year in each case. He also said the court had powers to impose a fine of an unspecified sum against the company under Section 304-A IPC. The accused were tried for criminal negligence and safety lapses resulting in the death of thousands of people and grievous hurt to over two lakh citizens of Bhopal, Mr Sahay said.
The court premises had been turned into a virtual fortress and there was a heavy police presence to control all entry points on Monday. There were dozens of police officers on duty at the entrance to the CJM’s court, which was put out of bounds for the media. Even representatives of the Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Udyog Sangathan, who were among the petitioners in this case and had also petitioned the Supreme Court to reopen the criminal case closed earlier, were barred from entering the court. The police used brute force to keep out the activists: among those manhandled was veteran journalist Rajkumar Keswani, who had issued a warning prior to the disaster that Bhopal was sitting at the mouth of a volcano!
The CBI had taken over the Carbide case five days after the disaster — on December 8, 1984 — and on December 1, 1987, it filed its first chargesheet. Summons were then issued to all the accused, asking them to appear in the Bhopal CJM’s court. While the Indians accused in the case responded to the summons, Union Carbide Corporation’s then US-based chairman Warren Anderson ignored it. On February 9, 1989, the CJM proclaimed Mr Anderson as an absconder under Section 82(1) IPC. But within days of this, the CBI was barred from investigating the matter any further as the Supreme Court issued an order on February 14, 1989 quashing all criminal proceedings arising out of the “incident” (Bhopal disaster) to enable a $470 million out-of-court compensation settlement for the gas victims to come into effect.
However, in response to a review petition on October 3, 1991, the Supreme Court decided to set aside the quashing and termination of criminal proceedings, and the criminal case was resumed in the Bhopal court on November 27, 1991.
Mr Anderson, who was named accused number one in the case, was initially arrested here days after the gas leak — on December 7, 1984. Cases were registered against him and the other accused under Sections 304-A, 426, 429, 278, 284 and 120-B of the Indian Penal Code. He was, however, then granted bail and allowed to leave the country on condition that he appear in court whenever summoned. Later, since he did not appear in court, Mr Anderson was declared an absconder and the case was bifurcated, to allow a speedy trial of the Indian accused.
Immediately after the CJM’s ruling was announced, activists working on behalf of the victims’ families called it “too little, too late”, accusing the prosecution and the CBI of failing the victims by diluting the charges. In New Delhi, meanwhile, Union law minister M. Veerappa Moily described the verdict as an example of “justice buried”, and said there was a need to fast-track such cases and to ensure proper investigation.