Anderson's extradition plea under US govt's consideration: MEA

Anderson is the prime accused in the Bhopal gas tragedy case in which over 5,200 had people died

Nearly 30 years after the Bhopal gas tragedy, the matter related to extradition of the then Union Carbide CEO Warren Anderson to India is still under consideration of the US government, the Ministry of External Affairs has said.

"An extradition request in respect of Warren Anderson has been sent to the Government of USA in April, 2011. The matter is now under the consideration of the Government of the USA," the Ministry said in reply to an RTI query.

It was asked to give up-to-date information on requests made to the US authorities for extradition of Anderson and response from the authorities on the matter.

The Ministry denied other details asked in the RTI plea citing Section 8 (1) (h) of the transparency law which bars disclosure of information which would "impede the process of investigation or apprehension or prosecution of offenders".

Anderson is the prime accused in the Bhopal gas tragedy case. Over 5,200 people died in the world's worst industrial disaster at the Union Carbide plant in Madhya Pradesh on the intervening night of December 2-3, 1984.

A Group of Ministers (GoM) led by Finance Minister P Chidambaram is deliberating on ways to safely dispose 346 MT of toxic waste lying at the site of one of the world's worst industrial disasters.

As many as 58 extradition requests have been made to various countries by India between 2008 and August 2013. Of these six were made in 2008, seven in 2009, 17 each during 2010 and 2011, six in last years and five between January and August this year, the reply said.

India has received 54 such requests from foreign nations in the last five years, the reply said.

The MEA declined to give information including name of persons against whom these extradition requests were made citing Section 8 (1) (a) of the RTI Act.

The Section prohibits information disclosure of which would prejudicially affect the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security, strategic, scientific or economic interests of the State, relation with foreign State or lead to incitement of an offence.