Seven managers convicted over the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy have appealed, a newspaper reported Tuesday as India said again it would urge the US to extradite the company's former American boss.
The convictions of the Indian managers for criminal negligence earlier this month, the first verdicts more than 25 years after the catastrophe, sparked uproar among survivors because of the perceived leniency of the punishment.
The guilty were handed two-year jail terms and fines of 100,000 rupees (2,000 dollars) for their role in the world's worst industrial accident that killed thousands of people instantly and tens of thousands in subsequent years.
The seven executives, all managers at the Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal that spewed toxic gas into neighbouring slums in December 1984, have filed appeals in a local Bhopal court, The Express newspaper said.
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh also said that New Delhi would renew efforts to have the American former chief executive of Union Cardide, a US chemicals group, extradited to India where he faces negligence charges.
"We will try to ensure that US government takes a more favourable attitude towards extradition," said Singh as he returned from a G20 meeting in Canada where he held talks with US President Barack Obama.
"I did not raise this issue in my discussions with President Obama. We will cross the bridge when we come to it," he said, adding that no formal extradition request had been lodged.
India has repeatedly asked for the extradition of ex-Union carbide boss Warren Anderson in the past. The government announced last week that it would present new evidence to Washington to try to secure his arrest.
The 89-year-old is believed to live in New York state.
Outrage over the sentences has cast a spotlight again on the stricken city of Bhopal where thousands of victims live in misery and the still-polluted pesticide plant still stands amid the slums.
The central government has since set aside new federal funds to double the compensation for the families of the dead, clean up the site and improve local medical facilities.
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