Bhopal, Jun 7 (IANS): More than 25 years after a gas leak from a Union Carbide plant killed an estimated 25,000 people here, a court Monday held eight accused guilty of criminal negligence in the world's worst industrial disaster and sentenced them to two years imprisonment.

The court also imposed a fine of Rs.100,000 on the eight, including Keshub Mahindra, who then headed the Union Carbide India Ltd (UCIL) from whose pesticide plant tonnes of lethal gas leaked on the night of Dec 2-3, 1984, killing thousands instantly and many more later.

A Rs.500,000 fine has been imposed on UCIL.

Among the others are UCIL officers Vijay Gokhale, J. Mukund, S.P. Chaudhary, K.V. Shetty, Kishor Kamdar and S.I. Quireshee. Quireshee didn't appear before the court due to ill health.

Another accused, R.B Chaudhary, died during the trial.

Warren Anderson, former chairman of Union Carbide Corp, the American parent company, is absconding.

Tonnes of methyl-iso-cyanate (MIC) spewed out of the now shut pesticide plant that was located in a congested part of the city.

In the years that followed, people exposed to the gas kept dying. The death toll is believed to be about 25,000.