Union Carbide officials in dock

(First Edition)

A local court yesterday charged eight Union Carbide officials, including a prominent Indian industrialist, Keshub Mahindra, with culpable homicide in connection with the 1984 Bhopal gas disaster, AFP reports from Bhopal. The gas leak killed more than 1,750 people outright, and the total death toll has been estimated at at least 3,828 by official count.

Five of the accused, all Indian nationals, were posted at the Union Carbide pesticides plant at the time of the leak, while the other three were elsewhere when the deadly gas leak occurred.