U.S District Court lets off Union Carbide, Anderson in Bhopal gas tragedy

New Delhi, June 29 (ANI): In a major jolt to the victims of the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy, a U.S District Court in Manhattan held neither Union Carbide nor its former chairman and chief executive officer Warren Anderson liable for environmental remediation or pollution-related claims.

US District Judge John Keena in Manhattan dismissed a lawsuit accusing the company of causing soil and water pollution around the Bhopal plant due to the disaster, and ruled that Union Carbide Corporation (UCC) and Anderson were not liable for remediation or pollution-related claims, the NDTV reports.

The court also ruled that it was Union Carbide India Ltd, and not its parent company Union Carbide Corporation that was responsible for the generation and disposal of the waste that polluted drinking water, and the liability rests with the state government.

In the early hours of December 3, 1984, around 40 metric tonnes of toxic methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas leaked into the atmosphere from the plant of Union Carbide and the breeze carried the lethal gas to the surrounding slums.

The government says around 3,500 died because of the disaster. Activists, however, calculate that 25,000 people died in the immediate aftermath and the years that followed. (ANI)