Even worse than the 40 tonnes of poisonous gas that descended onto Bhopal and the 25,000 deaths it caused, is the judgement that was passed earlier today, 26 years hence. Chief Judicial Magistrate Mohan P. Tiwari at Bhopal convicted 8 individuals and sentenced them to imprisonment of 2 years and released them on bail later the same afternoon. Bar& Bench had earlier covered in detail as to why the Courts are not a friend of Bhopal.

The convicted include Mahindra Chairman and former Union Carbide Chairman, Keshub Mahindra, current Chairman and then Managing Director of Union Carbide, Vijay Gokhale, then Vice President, Kishore Kamdar, Works Manager, J. Mukund, Assistant Works Manager Late R.B. Roy Chowdhury, Production Manager S.P. Choudhury, Plant Superintendent K.V. Shetty and Production Assistant, Shakeel Qureshi.

Reports indicate that the convicted were charged for causing death by doing a rash or a negligible act, not amounting to culpable homicide under Section 304-A of the Indian Penal Code. They have also been imposed the maximum sentence under the provision of 2 years and a fine of Rs. 1.17 lakh ($2,485) and an additional fine of Rs. 5 lakh ($10,618) on the company. However, Judge Tiwari granted them bail almost immediately after sentencing them. 

Civil society, however, is unhappy. They claim that the methyl isocyanate (MIC) continues to have its effects on Bhopal. Both local and international activists claim that the gas cloud that enveloped Bhopal on the midnight of December 3, 1984 has found its way into the soil and water, apart from being passed along genetically. Further, they claim that the charges were diluted and the accused ought to have been tried under more stringent provisions of the Indian Penal Code.

Raghu Rai, a photographer, who worked for environmental organization Greenpeace in 1984, had captured the horror the following day. His pictures on the tragedy continue to define the disaster. He told NDTV, “It is corruption and tragedy all the way, the lesser said about it, the better.”

Union Carbide’s Warren Anderson, who is absconding on the files of the court, continues residing in the Hamptons in New York. Meanwhile, a non-bailable warrant issued in 1989 remains pending against Anderson, who fled India earlier in 1984 after posting bail of Rs. 25,000 ($ 531, according to today’s exchange rate).

BJP is already in the process of gaining mileage out of the fiasco. They are using the effects of the disaster and the delayed judgment to leverage their agenda to block the Nuclear Liability Bill. Our Special Correspondent had written on how Union Carbide never quite recovered from the Bhopal leak.