Bhopal: The Bhopal gas tragedy is back to haunt the then Bhopal Superintendent of Police (SP), Swaraj Puri. He is in the line of fire for allegedly helping the then Union Carbide chief Warren Anderson flee. He was seen driving Anderson to the airport in a government car.
Puri has now been stripped off his plum post in Narmada Valley Development Authority where he has been working after his retirement in 2007. And with this job goes the benefits he enjoyed as a Minister of State (MoS).
For the BJP, it was scoring a point after the verdict.
"The SP was there and he is also under the Narmada Government Complaint Committee. He and was removed from his post since he got entangled in a case," BJP leader Babulal Gaur said.
Within the state BJP there was a growing demand to divest Puri of his current status. And this is not the first time he has been removed from an official post.
In 2006, Puri had to step down as the Madhya Pradesh DGP since he got entangled in a case which raised questions about his son's college admission, although later Puri had won this case in his favour.
Two petitions have been filed in a Bhopal court against Puri and the then Collector Moti Singh for helping Anderson flee Bhopal.
"The then Collector Moti Singh and the then SP Swaraj Puri provided a safe passage to convict Warren Anderson under IPC 304 and moved him out of India," said Shahnawaz Khan, petitioner's lawyer.
And even as Arjun Singh's silence grows louder by the day, a third petition against former Madhya Pradesh chief minister will be heard on June 29 for arranging Anderson's safe passage to the US.