NEW DELHI (AP) -- An Indian court on Wednesday agreed to a new request for the extradition of the former chief of a U.S. chemical company in connection with the 1984 Bhopal gas leak tragedy, an official said Wednesday.
The Central Bureau of Investigation filed an application Tuesday for a new trial for Warren Anderson, then CEO of Union Carbide Corp., over the industrial disaster in which more than 15,000 people died and hundreds of thousands suffered gas leak-related illnesses.
Investigators are making a new attempt to extradite Anderson from the United States after numerous earlier efforts were rejected by the United States, CBI spokesman R.K. Gaur said.
Judge Vinod Yadav said that the CBI had presented enough evidence to warrant Anderson's extradition to face trial in India. The CBI must now ask the Ministry of External Affairs to make a formal extradition request to the U.S. government.
Anderson was CEO of Union Carbide, now owned by Midland, Michigan-based Dow Chemical Co., when deadly gas leaked from the Bhopal factory on Dec. 3, 1984.
The 90-year-old Anderson was arrested in India just after the disaster, but left the country while free on bail. He now lives near New York.
The CBI, which wants to prosecute Anderson on charges of culpable homicide, says it has new evidence against him, but has not said what it is.
