Around twenty five years back, Bhopal was choking on the deadly fumes that had found their way across the city from the Union Carbide Plant. Close to 20,000 people died. And the man the victims blame for the tragedy is Warren Anderson, whose plant was the source of the deadly Methyl Isocyanate gas. He was charged with culpable homicide not amounting to murder. Yet, just four days after the tragedy, Anderson flew out of Bhopal on the official plane of Arjun Singh.

Anderson, now almost 90 years old, was the Chairman and CEO of Union Carbide - a pesticide plant - when the lethal gas leaked on the intervening night of December 2 and 3, 1984. Anderson is believed to have taken key decisions, including a cost-cutting measure that compromised safety at the gas plant. Security precautions too were inadequate. After the gas leak, Anderson was arrested and then released on bail by the Madhya Pradesh Police on December 7, 1984. He left India immediately after signing a bond of 25,000 rupees and has refused to return ever since.

He has never appeared in court or even been in India to explain what happened. In 1992, Anderson was declared a fugitive by the Bhopal court for failing to appear for hearings. Once he was declared absconding, his case was isolated from the case in which eight Indians then employed by Union Carbide have been convicted now.