Indian SC refuses to reopen case

India's Supreme Court turned down yesterday a government demand to hand harsher sentences to seven men convicted for their role in the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy.
The accident, blamed on Union Carbide, a US chemical group that ran the plant, killed thousands instantly and tens of thousands more from its lingering effects over the following years, according to the official figures.
The accused were sentenced to two years in prison by a state court, causing outrage and anger among survivors in Bhopal, a city in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. The executives were granted bail after their convictions.
"The curative petition is based on a plea that is wrong and fallacious," a five-judge bench in the top court said, adding that "no satisfactory explanation" had been given for filing the review after so long.
The charges of negligence were framed in 1996 after an order from the Supreme Court.
Survivor groups reacted with dismay at the setback yesterday.
"Every victim of the Bhopal gas leak is upset and angry today and we will express our anger across India," he told AFP.
Government figures put the death toll from the accident at 3,500 within three days of the leak, but the state-run Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has since estimated the figure at between 8,000 and 10,000 in the same period.
The ICMR has said that by 1994 some 25,000 people had died from the consequences of gas exposure, and victims groups say many are still suffering the effects today.