A court in India has rejected efforts to reduce the charges against Warren Anderson, the former chair of the U.S.-based company Union Carbide, which was responsible for a 1984 gas leak in Bhopal that killed 3,000 people and sickened tens of thousands more. The leak from a pesticide plant in the central Indian city was one of the worst industrial accidents in the history of the world. Nonetheless, India’s Central Bureau of Investigation had tried to weaken the charges against Anderson from culpable homicide to rash and negligent action. A district judge in Bhopal declined the request on the grounds that the accused had failed to appear in court; the judge also asked the CBI to hasten the extradition process so Anderson could be brought to trial. Greenpeace welcomed the court’s decision, as did survivors of the leak, who had been outraged by the CBI’s efforts to dilute the charges.
