Prison terms for Bhopal leak guilty

Thousands died after toxic gas leaked from the Bhopal plant [AFP] (Al  Jazeera) A court in India has sentenced seven ex-employees of the Indian unit of US chemicals firm Union Carbide to two years in jail after finding them guilty of negligence over a deadly gas leak that killed thousands in 1984. The court on Monday also ordered those convicted to pay a fine of $2100 each for the disaster that struck the central Indian city of Bhopal. Rights activists, however, said the ruling was a classic case of too little, too late. The Union Carbide plant had accidentally released toxic gases into the air on December 3, 1984, and the government says around 3,500 people died as a result in the immediate aftermath. About 15,000 more died due to the lingering effects of the poisoning over the years. According to rights activists, 100,000 residents living in the vicinity of the plant suffered chronic illnesses, and thousands of children were born with deformities and still carry the scars of the disaster. Long trial Mohan P Tiwari, the chief judicial magistrate, pronounced the verdict in a packed court room after a trial that had dragged on for 23 years. Keshub Mahindra, currently the chairman of India's top utility vehicle and tractor maker Mahindra & Mahindra, was the highest ranking person convicted for causing death by negligence and culpable homicide not amounting to murder. list of guilty:   Keshub Mahendra, ex-chairman   Vijay Gokhle, ex-managing director   Kishore Kamdar, ex-vice president   J Mukund, ex-works manager   S P Choudhary - ex-production manager   K V Shetty - ex-plant superintendent   S I Quershi - ex-production assistant   R B Roychoudhary - ex-assistant works manager (died in the process of trial) Mahindra was chairman of Union Carbide India Ltd (UCIL), a unit of Union Carbide, at the time of the accident. An eighth accused, the ex-assistant works manager, died during the course of the trial. Those convicted can appeal to a higher court, a process that in India can take years. However, there was no word on Warren Anderson, the then chairman of UCIL, who was declared an absconder after he did not subject himself to the trial in the case that began 23 years ago. The verdict applied only to Indian officials of the former Union Carbide's Indian arm while separate cases have been filed against the company and its overseas officials. Union Carbide had settled its liabilities to the Indian government in 1989 before being bought over by Dow Chemical. Narayanan Madhavan, an editor with the Hindustan Times daily welcomed the verdict despite the long delay. "It is good in a sense that it is establishes a sort of landmark precedent for future action on corporate accountability. "Activists have accused the public prosecutors of being not strong enough. On the other hand there is a technical issue of how much one can charge somebody of negligence. Of course there is the issue of comparing the safety standards applied in the US and those in India. "In terms of the corporate accountability issue, the verdict is considered one step forward," he said. 'Big joke' Rachna Dhingra, a Bhopal rights activist, however, said the ruling would mean little to the gas victims. "It is actually going to be nothing. What is it? We are looking at maximum punishment of two years or a fine. If that's not the biggest joke, then I don't know what is. "There's nothing to be happy about," she said. Bhopal victims have received less than half a million dollars in compensation. “$470 million have been distributed to half a million victims, which means each victim got around $1000 for lifetime injury," Dhingra pointed out.