More details tumbled out today in the Bhopal gas tragedy case of how former Union Carbide CEO Warren Anderson got bail immediately after his arrest. However, the then CBI chief rejected claims that the agency was asked not to pursue his extradition.
On top of a former CBI official’s charge on Anderson's extradition, the then District Magistrate of Bhopal came out with his version of how he was asked to ensure bail for the Carbide official hours after his arrest.
“They (Anderson and others) came to Bhopal from Bombay by a service flight. Then they were taken into police custody at the airport and after that to the Union Carbide guest house where they were told they were under arrest and were lodged in three separate rooms and the formality of arrest was completed,” former DM Moti Singh told reporters in Bhopal.
Later, he said, around 2 pm (Dec 7, 1984), the Chief Secretary called the SP and the DM to his office and told them to release Anderson and put him in the same plane waiting at the airport, to go to Delhi."Accordingly, we went to the place where he was lodged and observed the formalities of granting him bail," Singh said.
MP govt to challenge verdict in HC
Describing the verdict in the 1984 Bhopal Gas Tragedy case as “disappointing”, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan today said the state government would challenge it in the High Court.
“We are going to challenge the verdict in the High Court, for which we have constituted an expert committee to study the legal aspects before going in for an appeal,” Chouhan told reporters here.
The five-member committee comprised State Advocate General R D Jain, former state advocate generals Vivek Tankha and Anand Mohan Mathur, State Law Department Principal Secretary A K Mishra and legal luminary Shantilal Lodha, he said.
Pointing fingers at prosecution agency CBI, the chief minister asked why it didn’t file a review petition in the apex court.
