With the reconstituted Group of Ministers (GoM) on the Bhopal gas tragedy meeting on Friday, CBI director Ashwani Kumar is reportedly preparing his reply to questions expected to be raised at the meeting.
Sources in the agency revealed that Mr Kumar, being the head of the investigating agency that probed the Bhopal gas tragedy, will be present in the meeting. The meeting will be chaired by Union home minister P. Chidambaram, who is heading the GoM. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has asked the nine-member GoM to submit its report to the Cabinet within 10 days.
“Since extradition of former Union Carbide chief Warren Anderson would be part of the GoM discussion, the CBI director may be asked related questions. It was the CBI which had moved an extradition request to the United States on September 9, 1993 for arrest and extradition of Warren Anderson through diplomatic channel,” sources said.
The CBI had been consistently pursuing the matter of Anderson’s extradition, sources added. “The director will need to answer questions related to the agency’s alleged failure in arresting Anderson, who reportedly visited Bhopal on December 7, 1984, a day after the CBI registered the case against him,” sources said.
“Whether the agency should go for an appeal against the verdict of the chief judicial magistrate court of Bhopal or not will be another issue that is likely to be raised in the GoM. The director will give his opinion over the issue,” sources said, adding that the agency may go for an appeal against the CJM court verdict.
The director is also expected to explain why the agency examined only 178 prosecution witnesses out of total 240 witnesses in its 22 years probe, sources further added.
Besides, there is also a high possibility of the GoM discussing ways to give enhanced compensation to the victims on the lines of payment made to the 1984 anti-Sikh riot-affected, sources said.
Besides, the issue of the Supreme Court amending the charges through an order dated September 13, 1996, to Section 304-A (causing death by negligence) from 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 336, 337 and 338 of the Indian Penal Code is likely to be raised in the meeting, sources said.
Mr Kumar is preparing his reply over this issue too, sources added.