Safety equipment that should have prevented the lethal leak of toxic gas from the Union Carbide factory in Bhopal, India, was faulty, a former company employee told a court today.
Gas storage tanks had also been overfilled, former works manager Mr Gauri Shanker also claimed in his testimony about one of the most severe industrial disasters in history.
He was testifying in a case in which India's Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is trying to reduce the seriousness of the charges stemming from the gas leak that gassed at least 3,000 people to death and seriously injured more than half a million people in 1984.
Victims and their families are opposing a court bid by the CBI to downgrade charges from "culpable homicide" to a "rash and negligent act". Victims' groups claim at least another 10,000 deaths have been linked to the disaster.
The victims say the Indian government has been pressurised by Washington to reduce the charges in order to stave off the extradition to India of the-then chairman of now-defunct Union Carbide, Mr Warren Andersen.
India and the United States have an extradition treaty but, unlike homicide, negligence is not covered under the provisions of the treaty and would prevent victims from demanding Mr Andersen stand trial in India.
During today's hearing, Mr Shanker testimony was backed up by another former employee, Mr Umesh Anand.
"The evidence of both Gauri Shanker and Umesh Anand is important as it implicates [Union Carbide] further and proves our contention that lack of safety equipment caused the industrial disaster," Shreyas Jaisimha, lawyer for the gas victims, argued in the court.
Three organisations are opposing the CBI application - the Bhopal Gas Victims' Women's Workers Association, the Bhopal Group for Information and Action and the Bhopal Gas Victims Organisation.
AFP