Does the name of this unassuming Indian city ring any bells? It should. 26 years ago toxic gasses leaked from a pesticide plant there, killing a conservatively estimated 20,000 and directly affecting another 100,000 through gas-related diseases.
In the past few days, the trial of seven Indian employees of the company responsible has reached it's conclusion.
The 7 concerned -it was due to be eight, but the trial took so long, one of the accused died of natural causes during the proceedings- were each sentenced to........2 years in jail. This didn't go down well with the locals apparently, and it's not surprising really, is it? I wouldn't be pleased either.
There was an old joke out at around the time of the Bhopal disaster "Who's killed more Indians than general Custer?"
"Union Carbide"
Tasteless isn't it? But so are the sentences given out to the people responsible. And the fine of $11,000 to the company itself.....That's 55cents per death. Not even I can make a joke out of that.
3 comments:
Tragedy. Pure tragedy.
I had never heard of this. I will have to read about it immediately.
It's awful isn't it?
A woman in Edinburgh today got 3 years for dipping her babies dummy in methadone, baby recovered. Kind of makes you wonder about legal systems though.
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