Environmental non-governmental organisation Greenpeace has claimed that it had informed the Central Bureau of Investigation about the whereabouts of Warren Anderson, the then chairman of Union Carbide Corporation, who was declared an absconder in the Bhopal gas tragedy case.
Public relation officer of Greenpeace Nirmala Karunan told PTI that during a photo exhibition in 2002 in America, an unknown person called them and told them about the whereabouts of Anderson.
"On the basis of the information, we had gone to his (Anderson) residence, but his wife told us that he was not at home. Later, we saw Anderson escaping from the back door of his house," she said.
The Greenpeace activist claimed that she shared this information with the US and Indian courts and the CBI. "All the information regarding the incident has been explained in detail on our website also," she said.
Former Union Carbide India [ Images ] Chairman Keshub Mahindra and seven others were on Monday sentenced to two years imprisonment in the case. Anderson, 89, who lives in the United States, is an absconder and did not subject himself to the trial. There was no word about him in the judgment.
Veteran photographer Raghu Rai, who was among the first photographers to capture the Bhopal gas tragedy, says that the verdict is a travesty of justice. Rai's heartrending photo of a dead child with open eyes and innocent face being buried, went on to become the symbol of the Bhopal gas tragedy across the world.
Rai had undertaken a research project for Greenpeace on the disaster after which his photographs were exhibited in various countries.
"We received an anonymous call which informed us about Warren Anderson's address," he said.
According to Rai, the caller told Greenpeace, "You are bloody Indians and they are Americans, You are calling him a fugitive and he is relaxing at his home peacefully."
Calling the CBI a 'tame bull', the photographer said the investigating agency only works when it is forced to. Rai said he did not see the gas victims getting any relief even in the future.
"The manner in which the evidence has been weakened does not leave any hope that justice will be done in the future. No matter how much one proceeds, the evidence has been weakened in such a way that it has become useless."
The veteran photographer terms the verdict on the Bhopal gas tragedy as a case of justice lost for the victims because of the long delay and adds, "It is a failure on the government and judiciary's part that even after 25 years, justice has not been granted to the victims," he said.
Nearly 26 years after the world's worst industrial disaster, which killed more than 15,000 thousand people, the court on Tuesday held all the eight accused guilty.
The photographer said, "After the verdict, my first reaction was that it was a mockery of the victims. This decision will not benefit anybody", he said.
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