India Cabinet ministers call for extradition from US of ex-Union Carbide chief for Bhopal leak

India may try ex-Union Carbide chief for Bhopal

NEW DELHI, India — Indian ministers called Monday for the government to extradite the former head of Union Carbide and pursue liability claims against Dow Chemical as part of a new push for justice in a 1984 toxic gas leak that killed 15,000 people, a minister said.

Anger over the world’s worst industrial disaster — at a plant owned by a Union Carbide subsidiary in central Indian city of Bhopal — was revived this month after a court convicted seven former senior employees of the company’s Indian subsidiary of “death by negligence” and sentenced them to two years in prison.

Many in India saw the verdict as far too light a punishment for the tragedy, and the government formed a panel of ministers to revisit the case.

The ministers completed their report Monday and the full Cabinet was to meet in a special session Friday to consider the recommendations.

The report called for the government to renew its efforts to pursue the extradition of former Union Carbide chief Warren Anderson, who had been arrested and quickly released when he visited India soon after the tragedy, government officials said.

“The Indian government sent several requests to the U.S. government in the past years. A new request should be sent to the U.S. government in the light of new facts that have emerged,” Highways Minister Kamal Nath told the NDTV news channel.

Indian media reports said the panel also called on the government to pursue liability claims against Dow Chemical Co., which took over Union Carbide in 2001, seven years after Union Carbide sold its interest in the Bhopal plant.

In 1989, Union Carbide paid $470 million in compensation to the Indian government and said officials were responsible for the cleanup. Midland, Michigan-based Dow maintains that the 1989 settlement resolved the legal case.

In an e-mailed statement to The Associated Press Monday, spokesman Scot Wheeler said that “if there is any shortfall in compensation, it is to be borne by the Government of India.” Wheeler added that since Dow did not own Union Carbide at the time of the leak, it has no liability.

On Monday, Union Carbide declined comment.

Under the ministers’ proposal the families of those killed also would receive 1 million rupees ($22,000) each and the government would spend 3 billion rupees ($65 million) to clean up the factory.

“Our focus is now to bring relief to the people. There are still thousands of people who continue to suffer. The government of India is extremely sympathetic to their plight,” Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram said.

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Associated Press Writer Ashok Sharma contributed to this report.