Wife says former exec is ‘haunted’ by Bhopal

BRIDGEHAMPTON, N.Y. – The former head of the chemical company responsible for the gas leak that killed 10,000 people in India 25 years ago has been “haunted” for years by the world’s worst industrial disaster, his wife said Saturday.

An Indian court issued a warrant Friday for Warren Anderson, the former head of Union Carbide Corp., for the leak of 40 tons of poisonous gas in Bhopal. Anderson was arrested just after the disaster in the central Indian city but quickly left the country.

His wife, Lillian, answered the door Saturday at the couple’s house. Her husband is 89 and in poor health, she said.

“We covered everything way back when,” she said. “He’s been haunted for many years” by the accident.

Lillian Anderson wasn’t aware of the new arrest warrant and said, “It’s probably some political thing.” She said her husband wasn’t at home.

On Friday, in response to a recent appeal by a victims’ group, Prakash Mohan Tiwari ordered the arrest of Anderson. Tiwari, Bhopal’s chief judicial magistrate, also ordered the federal government to press for Anderson’s extradition.