Investigation began as disaster response and became a two-country docket.
The CBI’s 1987 charges and the 2010 trial are the Indian criminal spine. The United States suits are the forum spine.
Agencies
- Central Bureau of Investigation — Indian criminal investigation; 1987 charges against Indian accused and Anderson.
- Supreme Court of India — 1989 settlement, later revival of criminal cases, 1996 charge reduction.
- United States federal courts — Early mass-tort filings dismissed on forum non conveniens, sending the civil case to India.
- Madhya Pradesh and municipal authorities — Immediate body counts, relief camps and later health statistics that still define the scale argument.
What followed
- Contain and count
3 December 1984 was hospitals, mortuaries and a plant lock-down, not a leisurely forensic scene.
- Sue in the United States
Claimant lawyers filed where UCC sat. Forum doctrine sent the mass civil case back to India.
- Nationalise the claim
The 1985 Act made the Union the only settlor, for better coordination and for worse voice.
- Settle in 1989
US$470 million ended the main civil docket and briefly ended the criminal one.
- Revive and reduce
Criminal cases returned; 1996 cut the charge to negligence.
- Convict in 2010
A Bhopal trial court entered two-year sentences against Indian UCIL officials still alive to hear them.
Turning points
- Forum non conveniens — United States dismissal made India the only civil forum that mattered.
- 14 February 1989 — The settlement number became the global headline and the families’ grievance.
- 7 June 2010 — Criminal law finally spoke, and spoke softly.
The investigation lasted long enough for an executive to die untried and for employees to be convicted as old men.
Public-record encyclopedia. Not legal advice. Not a how-to. Graphic detail is withheld. Wars belong in a separate atlas.