The United States has rejected India's request for extradition of former Union Carbide chief Warren Anderson in connection with the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy in central India, the Press Trust of India (PTI) reported Tuesday.

"The US administrative department has rejected the extradition request on technical ground," PTI quoted official sources as said.

A Bhopal city court ruled last year that Anderson should face charges of culpable homicide under Section 304 of Indian Penal Code (IPC) and lashed out at the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for diluting the charge against him to negligence not amounting to murder.

The government contention of moving under Section 304 (a) of the IPC relating to offense of causing death by rash or negligent act was not accepted by the court.

The government argued that under section 304(a), it was an extraditable offense as per the provisions of the extradition treaty between India and United States.

"The matter was being studied by the legal department of CBI before a fresh extradition request could be moved to US for his extradition,"they said.

In the early morning of Dec. 3, 1984, a Union Carbide pesticide producing plant leaked a highly toxic cloud of methyl isocyanate onto the densely populated region of Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh. Of the 800,000 people living in Bhopal at the time, 2,000 died immediately.

Source: Xinhua