Kerala cops arrest second accused in ship mishap

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Kerala police on Thursday arrested the second accused, Mayur Virendra Kumar, 25, a seaman with MV Prabhu Daya that was involved in the hit-and-run incident in which five fishermen died off the Alappuzha coast recently.

“We have arrested Kumar and will produce him before the magistrate at Alappuzha on Friday. We are taking him by road from Chennai tonight,” Alappuzha inspector general of police K. PadmaKumar told Deccan Chronicle.

A case under 304-A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) has already been filed at Alappuzha. Kumar from Gujarat was on duty along with Sugandhan of Kerala on that fateful night. Sugandhan is being treated at a hospital in Trincomalee after he fell off the deck while the ship was enroute to Chennai from Sri Lanka.

PadmaKumar said the department would pursue the case of the first accused, second officer Prabodh Sugandhan, 24, “separately”. The captain of the ship, who is automatically responsible for all incidents involving the ship at the sea, has been allowed to stay back on the vessel, he said.

“He needs to be on board to manage the ship and so we are waiting for orders from DG shipping to arrest the vessel and take it to Kerala,” PadmaKumar said.

Prabhu Daya, bound to China via Singapore, was asked by DG shipping to report at Chennai port, as she was considered a prime suspect in the hit-and-run incident that toppled fishing boat Don-1.

The ship, owned by Mumbai-based Tolani Shipping Company, which was carrying iron ore, diverted from its actual route while in Sri Lankan waters and reached Chennai on Monday night.

The mercantile marine department (MMD), which conducted investigations and would submit the detailed report to the DG shipping. The initial probe had revealed scratch marks and bits of fishing rope attached to the ship’s body. This, with electronic evidence is strong evidence of the involvement of the ship in that tragic incident.