UK Today News: Bhopal Gas Tragedy: Eight Executives Convicted – Sentence Too Little, To Late
Bhopal Gas Tragedy: More than 26 years after one of the world’s worst ever industrial disasters took place, a court in central India convicted eight people on Monday for their role in the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy which killed thousands in Bhopal, India. The sentence will be announced at 5 p.m IST or 7:30 a.m EDT in New Delhi and it is likely to be only a two year sentence.
Reports say that Indian industrialist Keshub Mahindra, who was the then-head of Union Carbide India Limited (the plant responsible for the tragedy) and seven others have been charged with causing death by negligence.
Warren Anderson, the former chairman of the US-based Union Carbide Corporation, was issued an arrest warrant last year, but he is reported to be absconding.
Back in 1984, around midnight, there was a rupture in one of the gas tanks that leaked out a combination of gases killing nearly 4,000 people and leading to the deaths of more than 10,000 others. Even today, the people of Bhopal in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, struggle with many health issues like breathlessness, cancer, near-blindness, fatigue heart problems as well as tuberculosis.
However, the families of the victims and the survivors have said that this is not justice because the sentence is too little and it comes too late.
