Bhopal - 5. The Fatal Night - a podcast by BBC Radio 4

The Bhopal gas tragedy was the world's worst industrial accident. Tens of thousands of people died and many more suffered long term illnesses when lethal methyl isocyanate gas leaked from the Union Carbide plant in the city in central India on 2nd December 1984.

For the previous two years one man had been predicting that Bhopal was an accident waiting to happen. Forty years ago this month the Bhopali journalist Rajkumar Keswani wrote his first article warning of the dangers posed by safety lapses at the plant. During a dogged investigation pitting him against political power, corporate money and the indifference of the media and public opinion, he never gave up. This cinematic documentary series tells his story for the first time.

Episode 5. The Fatal Night

As the city slept on the night of the 2nd December 1984, a huge leak of lethal methyl isocyanate escaped from the Bhopal Union Carbide chemical plant. Keswani realises his worst fears have come to pass. All his warnings have been ignored and now people are dying in their thousands before him. Union Carbide refuses to divulge what gas has been released and hospital doctors are helpless, not knowing what treatment to administer desperate patients.

After the tragedy, Rajkumar Keswani is honoured with India's most prestigious award for journalism. In his acceptance speech he said he was receiving this award for his greatest journalistic failure.

Narrator Narinder Samra
Written and researched by Anubha Yadav and Radhika Kapur
Music and Sound Design by Shreyan Chatterjee
Studio Mix Donald McDonald
Producer Neil McCarthy

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