Bhopal gas tragedy: Fresh warrants against officers who allegedly helped Warren Anderson escape

Bhopal Chief Judicial Magistrate Bhaskar Yadav has directed the Bhopal senior superintendent of Police to ensure the presence of Moti Singh and Swaraj Puri -- the collector and SP, respectively, of Bhopal in the year 1984 when the deadly gas tragedy struck the city -- in his court on March 1.

A bailable warrant of Rs 5000 each has been issued against the two retired officers.

The court had earlier issued bail able warrants against the two officers on a petition filled by gas activist Abdul Jabbar.

JABBAR: OFFICERS HELPED WARREN ANDERSON ESCAPE

Jabar in his petition alleged the two officers facilitated the escape of Warren Anderson, the then CEO of Union Carbide Corporation, which owned the insecticide plant that developed the leak in 1984. Anderson died in 2014.

Referencing material from a book written by the then Bhopal collector Moti Singh, Jabbar claimed Anderson was allowed to escape from Bhopal in November 1984 despite a non-bailable case being registered against him.

Singh and then SP Swaraj Puri conspired to illegally grant bail to Anderson who was then escorted to the airport by the Bhopal police, the petition further alleges.

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EARLIER WARRANTS RETURNED

The court of CJM Bhaskar Yadav had issued bailable warrants against the two former officers on November 19 last year, but the warrants were returned to the court with a note from the police that the two were not found in their respective government bungalows.

"Obviously they (Singh and Swaraj) would not have been found in their government bungalows as both of them have since retired from government service but everyone knows where they live. The court accepted this argument and hence directed the district SSP to ensure their presence in court on March 1," Jabbar said.

THOUSANDS DEAD IN DEADLY ACCIDENT

Tragedy had struck Bhopal during on intervening night of December 3 and 4 when methyl isocyanide leaked from the Union Carbide's factory in the JP Nagar area of Bhopal. In the mayhem that continued for several weeks, thousands lost their lives and several thousand suffered life-long disabilities.

The left over toxic chemical waste is still lying at the Union Carbide factory in Bhopal and according to experts, is seeping into groundwater. The contamination radius is expanding with every passing day even as survivors, activists and the government fail to reach an agreement on how to dispose off it.

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Also read: Bhopal gas tragedy: 32 years on, world's worst industrial disaster continues to haunt