BHOPAL: Shakeel Qureshi , the only local Union Carbide official facing criminal proceedings in the Bhopal gas tragedy, has been arrested by CBI. He was the shift in-charge that fateful night, and the only ‘eyewitness’.

He was missing ever since a court convicted all the accused in June 2009. The court of Bhopal district judge, which is hearing appeals of those convicted, had asked CBI to trace him and produce him in court, failing which the CBI SP was asked to present himself before the judge.

Qureshi was traced to Nagpur by CBI and brought to Bhopal in an ambulance on Wednesday as he is paralysed and bedridden. District and sessions judge, R K Verma went to the ambulance himself to see his condition, and granted him bail on medical grounds.

Qureshi, who was a supervisor at the Union Carbide factory in Bhopal, was the shift in-charge on the intervening night of December 2-3 when deadly MIC gas leaked into the atmosphere and turned Bhopal into a gas chamber .

Eight Union Carbide of India (UCIL) officials, including Qureshi, were put on trial on criminal charges. Qureshi was the only one who was a regular at the hearings at the chief judicial magistrate’s (CJM) court. The other accused had received exemption from personal appearance at the outset of trial.

Qureshi was seen in court on the day of verdict in June 2010. He was handed a suspended sentence of two years, like all the other accused, and released on bail.

He vanished after that and stopped attending hearings of the case in the appellate court of district and sessions judge, where both CBI and the convicts had filed appeals against the CJM court order. While CBI prayed for tougher punishment, the convicts sought acquittal.

Qureshi’s absence didn’t raise eyebrows initially since he was on bail and it was not mandatory for him to be present in court. But then, the counsel for two of the accused in the case, Anarbon Roy , started arguing in court that the only person who “knew the whole truth” was Qureshi since he was “present in the MIC room when the gas leaked”.

Bhopal district and sessions judge, R K Verma, asked CBI to trace Qureshi and bring him to court. An arrest warrant was also issued.

On his arrival in court on Wednesday, it was revealed that Qureshi had shifted to Nagpur with his family, where he had started a business. He is bedridden after suffering a stroke.

The judge, after examining his condition, granted him bail on medical grounds on personal bonds of Rs 1 lakh each and payment of a penalty of Rs 10,000.

