Warren Anderson, wanted for Bhopal gas tragedy, dies

( November 1, 2014, New Delhi, Sri Lanka Guardian) Former Union Carbide chief Warren Anderson, wanted in India in connection with the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy which claimed over 3,000 lives in one of the world’s most lethal industrial accidents, has died in Florida aged 92.

Anderson, a Brooklyn carpenter’s son who ascended to the top of Union Carbide Corporation, died on September 29 at a nursing home in Vero Beach, Florida, but his death was not announced by his family and was confirmed from public records, the New York Times reported.

The Indian government made multiple requests to extradite him, and officially labelled him a fugitive. A judge also called him an “absconder”.

Anderson reached Bhopal four days after the accident, where he was immediately arrested. But after quickly paying bail, he never returned to face trial.

The Bhopal horror began around midnight on December 2-3, 1984, when a chemical reaction in a plant that made insecticides caused a leak of toxic gases that swept through the surrounding community.