Bhopal gas tragedy: Absconding accused arrested from city
   Date :20-Feb-2020

Bhopal gas tragedy Abscon
 
 
Staff Reporter :
 
Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) team has arrested absconding accused in Bhopal gas tragedy case from Gittikhadan area of city on Tuesday. The arrested accused Shakil Ahmed Qureshi (80), a resident of Indore, was hiding in Jafar Nagar area of Gittikhadan with his family, said a CBI official. Acting on a tip-off, a team of CBI New Delhi with local support raided at his house and arrested him. The CBI produced the accused in the court at Nagpur and obtained his transit remand.
 
A CBI official informed that Qureshi was working as operator at the Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) pesticide plant in Bhopal. He went absconding in year 2016 and was not attending court hearing for last four years. The court had issued Non-bailable arrest warrants against him. However, he was continue to dodge the Madhya Pradesh police for four years. As the warrants were issued on his Indore residence address, the police were failed to nab him, said the CBI official. CBI was requested to execute the warrant. Acting on a tip-off, the CBI team arrested him from Nagpur. Post-midnight on December 3, 1984, poisonous gas that leaked from the factory of Union Carbide in Bhopal killed thousands of people directly.
 
As per official records, the Bhopal gas tragedy killed 3,787 people. The figures were updated by the Madhya Pradesh government later as the immediate official estimate had put the death toll due to gas leak from Union Carbide factory at 2,259. In an affidavit, submitted in 2006, the government said that the Bhopal gas leak caused 5,58,125 injuries that included approximately 3,900 severely and permanently disabling injuries. CBI registered the case on December 6, 1984, on the request of Madhya Pradesh (MP) Government and took over the investigation of the case. Earlier, it was Hanumanganj Police Station of Bhopal which had registered the case on December 2, 1984.