Court asks CBI to re-issue summons to Dow Chemical in gas leak case

BHOPAL: A local court has asked the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to re-issue summons to US based multinational giant, Dow Chemical to appear before it and submit why it didn't present itself during the trial of the world's worst industrial disaster known as the Bhopal gas tragedy of 1984.

Dow, the global chemical giant, took over Union Carbide Corporation (UCC) in 2000. Leakage of toxic gas from the UCC factory here had killed more than 3,500 people in 1984.

On July 23 last year, the Chief Judicial Magistrate's (CJM) court has issued summons to Dow asking it to send its representative to appear before it yesterday, but nobody appeared, after which the court asked for reissuing of summons to the company.

Prosecution agency CBI told the court that it had sent word to the company through the US Justice Department but it hasn't received any response yet.

It has informed the court in August this year that the CBI had forwarded the summon to the Union Home Ministry which in turn submitted it to the US Justice Department in October.

The CJM's court has issued re-summons to Dow on a petition filed by the Bhopal Group for Information and Action (BGIA) seeking that the US chemical giant too should be tried since it had taken over UCC.

"We want to know that why Dow is sheltering a fugitive UCC," BGIA activist Rachna Dhingra told PTI.

CJM Pankaj Singh has fixed March 14, 2015 as case's next date of hearing.

On June 7, 2010 the CJM's court had convicted people in connection with the tragedy, but former UCC Chairman, the late Warren Anderson and other officials didn't submit himself for trial, after which the court declared them absconders.