Kochi: Three fishermen, two of them hailing from Tamil Nadu, and one from West Bengal sustained minor injuries after their fishing boat ‘Sylvia’ was hit by a Singapore-based ship in the early hours of Saturday.
The injured fishermen have been identified as Subal Maity, 57, of South 24 Parganas in West Bengal, Arumugham, 58, and Pandyan, 52 both from Ramanathapuram near Rameswaram in Tamil Nadu. The ship was reportedly identified as ‘MV Chanya Naree’, a cement carrier from Singapore.
According to Department of Fisheries, the fishing boat belonged to a Munam-bam native P.T. Francis. “The incident took place around 12 midnight on Friday and the vessel had reported the incident following which the Navy and Coast Guard received alert,” sources said. “However, the boat was in a condition enough to sail back to the Munambam fishing harbor.”
According to the statement given to Coastal Police, the fishermen were not able to identify the vessel as it was dark. Meanwhile, the police sources said the place and time of the incident as reported by the ship and as related by the fishermen seemed different and it is being probed. The detailed statements are being taken and it will be verified. The process is going on, police said.
There were 11 fishermen on the boat that reportedly left Munambam on March 23. Seven of the fishermen hailed from Ramanatha-puram and Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu, while four were from West Bengal. Nagarajan, Sellakkannu, Anthony Raj, Varghese Michael, Cletus, all hailing from Tamil Nadu and Panchanan Pradhan, Santosh Santra and Manikanta Maiti, all hailing from West Bengal were the members of the boat.
According to Matsya Thozhilali Aikya Vedhi president Charles George, the latest accident was the third in six months. It was on August 7 last year, three fishermen were killed and nine went missing after oil tanker MV Desh Shakti and a fishing boat ‘Oceanic’ collided off Kochi.
