Kochi: The Mercantile Marine Department (MMD) on Tuesday confirmed that the ship involved in the mid-sea collision off Kochi on August 7 was the oil tanker MV Desh Shakti. The captain of the ship and two other staff were taken into custody by the coastal police and will be brought to Kochi by Wednesday.
According to officials, captain B.S. Ahluwalia of New Delhi, second officer Nandakishore Gaaru of Rajasthan and Rajkumar of Bihar, who were in command of the ship at the time of the collision, will be subjected to a thorough interrogation. “After examining the navigational records and other location maps of the ship, we confirmed the ship’s presence at the spot on August 7, when the collision took place,” officials said.
The ship, which was travelling from Chennai to Basra in Iraq, was anchored off Mangalapuram coast on Thursday as per the directions from the director-general of shipping. According to officials, when the Navy, Shipping Corporation of India (SCI), and police officials questioned the captain and other fellow staff, they denied that any collision had occurred.
Expert divers from Mumbai who conducted an underwater survey of the bottom of the ship had found some scratches on its body besides paint samples of the fishing boat.
The MMD later gave a final report to the ministry of shipping that MV Desh Shakti was involved in the collision. Based on this report, the coastal police took the three, including the captain of the ship, into custody.
Four persons were killed and seven went missing when the ship rammed a fishing boat on August 7. The collision took place around 27 nautical miles north-west off Chettuva barmouth in Thrissur.
