Three days after the Bhopal gas tragedy, the police here had released the then Union Carbide
CEO Warren Anderson and two others on bail by "deleting" in the complaint a stringent charge under the IPC against them, trial court sources said on Friday.
A perusal of court documents shows that the in-charge of the Hanuman Ganj Police Station, Surender Singh, had initially arrested Anderson, then UCIL chairman Keshub Mahindra and senior company official Vijay Prakash Gokhale at 10.10 AM on December 7,1984 in the presence of one Rakesh Kumar under various sections of IPC including 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder).
They were also charged with sections 304 A (causing death by negligence), 278 (making atmosphere noxious to health), 284 (negligent conduct with respect to poisonous substance), 426 (mischief) and 429 (mischief by killing or
maiming cattle, other animals).
Later, the police released the three, "deleting" the charge against them under Section 304, they said.
The sources said that police had no right to delete such a charge and in doing so they had exceeded their brief.
"If the charge had not been deleted, Anderson may not have been able to leave India," they said.
The CBI had later booked Mahindra and Gokhale under Section 304 which provides for prison term of 10 years.
However, the Supreme Court had dropped the stringent section in the case.
Over 15,000 people were killed and thousands of others maimed when the deadly methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas leaked from the Union Carbide plant on the intervening night of December
2-3, 1984.