CBI nabs absconding Union Carbide official after 4 years

New Delhi: After four years of what the Central Bureau of Investigation has called "strenuous efforts", the agency has arrested absconding Union Carbide employee SI Qureshi, who was convicted and sentenced for his role in the Bhopal Gas Tragedy of 1984, from Nagpur, officials here said. They added that Qureshi was convicted for his role in the gas leak that killed thousands as he was the production assistant working on the night the MIC gas had leaked from the Union Carbide's Bhopal plant.

Officials here said that after Qureshi was convicted and sentenced, he had appealed the verdict in higher courts and then absconded in 2016. Following this, a court in Madhya Pradesh had issued a Non-Bailable Warrant for Qureshi's arrest and directed the state police to execute it. However, after MP Police's efforts did not yield results, the Central Bureau of Investigation was asked to execute the warrant by the concerned court.

The central agency put in extensive efforts to track him down in Bhopal, Indore, Nagpur and Pune and officials said that he was finally nabbed from Nagpur on February 18. The agency added that he was produced in court on Wednesday. Qureshi was sentenced to 2 years in prison along with six other officials of Union Carbide's Indian subsidiary after the charge against them was changed from homicide not amounting to murder to death due to negligence.