Bhopal tragedy was corporate manslaughter: BJP

New Delhi, Aug 11: Leader of Opposition Sushma Swaraj on Wednesday said the 1984 Bhopal Gas Tragedy was the result of criminal negligence, and the authorities allowed the tragedy to happen.

"Why were the accused in Bhopal Gas Tragedy let off? This is a case of corporate man slaughter," said Sushma Swaraj, in the debate on the Bhopal disaster in the Parliament.

"Government allowed this incident to happen, to save money and to make profit. They took Indian lives for granted and let this incident happen," she added.

Earlier on Aug 5, Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office Prithviraj Chavan said the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has recently sent additional evidence against former Union Carbide chief Warren Anderson to the Ministry of External Affairs in connection with his extradition proceedings in the case.

The CBI had on August 2 filed a filed a curative petition in the Supreme Court seeking restoration of stringent charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder against the accused in the 1984 Bhopal Gas tragedy case.

The Group of Ministers (GoM) constituted to examine all aspects of the 1984 Bhopal gas disaster, seeking Anderson's extradition apart from measures to clean up the disaster site, had submitted the report to Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh on June 21.

The GoM had dealt with all the issues - compensation, legal issues, including the issue of the extradition of Warren Anderson, the legal options available to the Government of India, and most importantly, remediation matters, and health related matters.

Union Carbide settled its liabilities to the Indian government in 1989 by paying 470 million dollars before being bought by another US company, Dow Chemical.

In the early hours of December 3, 1984, around 40 metric tonnes of toxic methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas leaked into the atmosphere and was carried by wind to surrounding slums.

The Government says around 3,500 died in one of India's most horrific of industrial disasters. Rights activists, however, claim that 25,000 people have died so far.

ANI