Eight convicted for Bhopal gas leak

An Indian court yesterday sentenced the former top managers of the company blamed for the massive Bhopal gas leak 25 years ago to two years in prison in the first convictions over the catastrophe.

Eight people were found guilty in the local court in Bhopal, capital of central Madhya Pradesh state, over the incident, which poisoned tens of thousands of people in the world's worst industrial accident.

A lethal plume of gas escaped from a storage tank at the US-run Union Carbide pesticide factory in the early hours of December 3, 1984, killing thousands in the surrounding slums and residential area.

The eight local managers, one of whom has died, were found guilty of criminal negligence. Keshub Mahindra, the current chairman of India's top utility vehicle and tractor maker Mahindra & Mahindra, was the highest-ranking person convicted yesterday. He was chairman of Union Carbide India at the time of the accident.

The guilty were all ordered to pay a fine of Rs100,000 (Dh7,794.16).

The court also fined the former Indian unit of Union Carbide Rs500,000.

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