Senior officials and consultants of a Mumbai-based subsidiary of Dow Chemical of USA, which took over the Union Carbide Company after the 1984 Bhopal gas leak tragedy, kept on bribing a member of the Central Insecticides Board for five years continuously in order to get their three products — Pride, Dursban 10g and Nurelle D — registered in India.
Investigations by the CBI, which relied upon 140 documents and 66 witnesses, revealed that the accused official, while working as Plant Protection Adviser (PPA) to the government of India during 1996 to 2001, accepted a number of pecuniary benefits and valuable things from the firm for himself and his brother from Dow Agro Services India private limited (formerly known as DE-Nocil Crop Protection Limited, a subsidiary of Dow Chemicals, USA).
According to sources, the CBI had forwarded a Letter of Request (LR) to the US government on May 30, 2008, which was executed on November 17, 2008, to elicit information regarding vouchers of Dow Chemicals to establish the payment of bribes during 1996-2001 by Dow Agro.
“Investigation shows that all the invoices and bills of DE-Nocil Crop Protection Limited containing 12 instances of illegal gratification, were sanctioned by a British citizen, the then managing director of the company,” sources said.