Pleas for Warren Anderson's extradition grow louder

The pleas for the extradition of Warren Anderson to India has grown more strident as a grouping of gas leak victims has written to US president Barack Obama asking him to extradite the former Union Carbide Corp chief executive officer to ''face justice''.

Anderson, who now lives in New York, is one of the main accused in the Bhopal gas tragedy case. He was flown out of India by the then Madhya Pradesh government on 7 December 1984, just four days after the gas leak at the Union Carbide plant in Bhopal which is estimated to have killed 20,000 people and injured half-a-million.

''We have also written a letter to Obama appealing him to help us with this case," said Abdul Jabbar, convenor, Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Udyog Sanghathan (Bhopal Gas Victims Women Forum), on Sunday.

He said that Obama's statement that the Bhopal gas tragedy was India's "internal matter" was wrong.

The gas leak case sparked outrage among victims and well-wishers after a local court in Bhopal sentenced seven former Union Carbide officials to just two years' imprisonment and a fine of Rs1 lakh each for negligence. All the convicts are now out on bail.

Meanwhile, the Congress, having admitted to letting Anderson go, continues to defend late former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi and former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Arjun Singh, saying that the decision was taken by the then governments to maintain law and order.

On Saturday, Union Law Minister Veerappa Moily even tried to put the blame on the judiciary for failing to provide justice to the victims.