The three crew members of MV Rak Carrier, that sank off the coast of Mumbai on August 4, 2011, have approached the Bombay high court to quash the case of negligence registered against them with the Yellow Gate police station.
The Yellow Gate police station on August 5, 2011 had registered a case of negligence and endangering lives against the three crew members of MV Rak Carrier — Arkan Abdal Malik Khaleel, a Jordanian, Inonefcu Ion, a Romanian and Humka Bin Ada, an Indonesian — as well as the owner of the vessel.
According to the petition filed by the crew through their advocate Dinesh Mota, the Yellow Gate police cannot book them as the ill-fated vessel was 22 nautical miles away from Mumbai’s coast and the jurisdiction of the Yellow Gate police station is only up to 12 nm from the coast on the western region. Thus, the case is out of their jurisdiction.
Apart from that, the other point of argument is that the police does not have anything to prove that the three crew members had endangered the lives of other crew members due to negligent actions.
The petition has also mentioned that the Government of India does not have any objection for their repatriation to their home. This was mentioned in a letter dated January 3, 2012 of the ministry of shipping. The inquiry report prepared by the Directorate-General Of Shipping has mentioned that MV Rak Carrier had a structural weakness, which could be due to the age of the ship. The petition will come up for hearing on Saturday.