Raising doubt over former chief minister and veteran Congress leader Arjun Singh’s statement over Bhopal gas tragedy, state Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan today claimed he could not digest the veteran leader’s reply in Rajya Sabha. “The statement does not gel with the facts which I have,” the chief minister said.
Referring to the logbook of the controversial state plane that ensured safe exit to the prime accused of the tragedy, Warren Anderson, Chouhan said he had personally seen the logbook and it was clearly mentioned in the logbook — “Special Flight ordered by the chief minister”. Chouhan asked, “How come the state authorities might have used the state plane when a “Chanakya” kind of chief minister was in office. How did he not know who ordered the chief secretary to use state plane to carry Anderson?”
The logbook, Chouhan said, had all details like name of the pilot, date and time, including the arrival time at Delhi. “No officials at the Union home department can order directly to a state chief secretary and particularly when the matter was so serious,” Chouhan added.
He also raised doubt on Singh’s statement. “When he informed about the arrest of Anderson to Rajiv Gandhi, who was in Harsud, near Bhopal to address a public meeting, he (Gandhi) had said let’s proceed for next meeting. “A leader like Rajiv Gandhi cannot be so insensitive that he will ignore Anderson’s arrest and will proceed for next meeting.”
Chouhan wrote a letter to Singh earlier last month asking him to reveal the truth.
Today said, “I once again urge him to reveal the truth and name the person who ordered him to ensure safe exit to Warren Anderson as it is not his personal matter is case of 15000 people who died and those five lakh who suffered. Why has he taken so long to reveal the fact? He made the statement so late why? Was there any plan to design the statement so that particular names cannot be revealed?
According to source the plane has been sold out to a company Span Air, later it had been sold out to some American Company and so did the logbooks.
