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  • Produce the absconder!
    Court denies dilution of charges against Bhopal accused
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    September 2002 - In May this year, a fresh legal twist to the Bhopal saga emerged. The Central Bureau of Investigation had previously filed an application in the courts on behalf of the public prosecutor (Govt of India). The bureau asked that it be allowed to dilute the charges Warren Andersen to mere negligence, rather than the far more serious charge he faced. Andersen, CEO of Union Carbide at the time of the Bhopal disaster and prime accused in the case, had long been declared an absconder by the Bhopal High Court. A non-bailable arrest warrant against him remains active.

    Why was the CBI, on behalf of the Govt of India (the prosecution), attempting to dilute charges framed and held by the Courts against Union Carbide and Andersen? The bureau's contention was that a similar revision of charges was allowed by the Supreme Court in 1996 against several of the other accused in the same case. Critics have long argued that government is keen on keeping India open to foreign investors, and that prosecuting Andersen would undermine that objective. This, they contend, is among the reasons why the extradition proceedings against the absconding executive have made no headway.

    Keen on ensuring that the government did not dilute the charges against the absconders, several associations of the survivors including Bhopal Gas Peedith Mahila Udyog Sanghatan, the Bhopal Group for Information and Action in Bhopal, and the Bhopal Gas Peedith Sangharsh Sahyog Samiti filed written objections with the court. On August 28, 2002 the survivors groups and campaigners for justice heaved a sigh of relief. The Court rejected the case for dilution of charges against Warren Andersen and Union Carbide. Rameshwar Kothe, the Chief Judicial Magistrate, stated in his order that it was clear that while the other accused in the case had initiated their own appeals process with the Supreme Court, the absconders had not at that time nor later taken up on their own, an appeal for modification of the charges made out against them. They remain absconders. Hence the original chargesheet made out by the prosecution remains unalterable.

    The magistrate also pointed out that instead of initating extradition proceedings against Warren Andersen as the High Court had ordered, the prosecution (the Govt of India) was actually attempting to dilute the charges. The prosecution has been asked to appraise the court of the progress in the matter of extradition.

    Meanwhile, the international human and environmental rights organizations Greenpeace exposed the inadequacy of the Indian government's attempts to trace Warren Andersen, by tracking him down on its own! Greenpeace paid Anderson a visit at his U.S. home and handed him an arrest warrant. The organization has long demanded that Andersen appear in court to explain why his company did not apply the same safety standards at its plant in India that it operated at a sister plant in South Charleston, in the US state of West Virginia.

    "If a team of journalists and Greenpeace managed to track down India's most wanted man in a matter of days, how seriously have the U.S. authorities tried to find him all these years?", said Greenpeace campaigner, Casey Harrell, in the U.S. Calling on both governments to act swiftly, Mr. Ganesh Nochur, Campaigns Director of Greenpeace India stated, "Now that Anderson's address is known, India must immediately and formally push for his arrest and extradition on charges of culpable homicide. In return, Greenpeace demands that the U.S. honour this request, per the two nations' extradition agreement".

    The Court set mid-October dates for the next hearings, and directed the CBI to produce Mr.Andersen in court.

    India Together
    September 2002