Warren Anderson, now refocused on Bhopal issue

Perhaps the biggest fallout of this week's verdict in the Bhopal gas tragedy has been the refocusing of attention on Warren Anderson, and the fact that he has not been tried for his role as the senior-most executive of the company that caused the world's biggest industrial disaster.

Anderson, who was Chief Executive Officer of Union Carbide Corp in 1984, flew into India after the gas leak from a Carbide plant choked Bhopal on the 2-3 of December. He was charged with culpable homicide not amounting to murder. Yet, just four days after the tragedy, Anderson flew out of Bhopal on the official plane of Arjun Singh, who was at the time the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh.


The Chief Secretary at that time called me to the room and told me to arrange for the departure of Warren Anderson," said the then collector of Bhopal, Moti Singh.

"Mr Anderson, Keshav Mahindra and BR Gokhle came by service flight from Mumbai to Bhopal and they were taken into our custody at the airport. We put them inside Union Carbide guest house, Shamara Hills, after arrest and at around 2 pm, the Chief Secretary called police chief and me and told us to release Anderson and send him to Delhi by plane. Accordingly we went to that place, did the formalities, and he was released on bail and sent to Delhi by plane, Moti Singh added.

From Bhopal, Anderson flew to Delhi where he met with President Giani Zail Singh for a cup of tea.

In the years since then, the government now offers, it has tried to get America to extradite Anderson, who lives in New York state.

On Tuesday, BR Lall, who headed the CBI's investigation into the Bhopal tragedy April 1994 to July 1995, told NDTV that he had received a letter from the Ministry of External Affairs, asking him to drop proceedings connected to the extradition request for Anderson.

Not true, says K Vijaya Rama Rao, who was the Director of the CBI at that time. "At no stage... neither the MEA nor the CBI... gave up efforts to extradite Anderson. MEA is sharing with us their difficulties which are very simple that is the unwillingness of US to extradite him to India."

Reacting to the issue, the External Affairs Ministry today said that it has time and again requested for Anderson extradition, which has been turned down by the US for want of more "evidential links".

Sources in the government say a US court flatly rejected the extradition of Anderson in 2003.

Commenting on the issue of Anderson's extradition, Congress party today said that Warren Anderson should be extradited. "Anderson's extradition process should be completed," said Congress spokesperson Jayanthi Natarajan.