Chennai, Nov 2 (IANS) The Madras High Court Friday directed that beached tanker Pratibha Cauvery should not be moved out of Chennai waters on a petition by a family member of a crew seeking compensation even as four bodies of drowned crew members washed ashore.
S. Prabakaran, counsel for M. Shankaranarayanan, told IANS: “The court has restrained movement of ship outside Chennai Port waters. We had also demanded an inquiry into the issuance of seaworthiness certificate to the ship.”
Shankaranarayanan is the brother of Anand Mohandas, a crew at the oil tanker who died due to drowning Wednesday.
According to Prabakaran, the petitioner has asked the court for an interim compensation of Rs.2.5 million and a final compensation of Rs.1 crore.
Anchored near the Chennai Port, the 31-year-old Japanese built Pratibha Cauvery with 37 crew members ran aground Wednesday afternoon at the Elliots Beach or Beseant Nagar beach.
The ship was pushed by strong winds of cyclone Nilam.
Strangely, after the ship was beached, captain Carl Fernandez ordered that it be abandoned, surprising the sailor community.
The Indian Coast Guard said the decision was against their advice.
“The ship is the safest place on the sea and more so if it is beached. When my nephew Jomon called me and asked for my advice on the captain’s decision, I told him to be on the ship come what may,” Joseph, a relative of missing crew member Jomon, told IANS.
Nevertheless, 22 crew members of the tanker got into a lifeboat. Hit by giant waves, the boat capsized and five went missing while 17 were rescued and admitted to a hospital. There, one of them, Andan Mohandas, died.
On Thursday, the Coast Guard brought to the shores the remaining 15 crew members who had stayed back on the ship.
The search for one missing crew member while bodies of four washed ashore Friday.
“Whether the ship was in a fit condition to sail in such weather is the moot question,” Manoj Joy, national coordinator for Sailors Helpline, told IANS.
With the Madras High Court restraining the ship from being moved out of Chennai, Pratibha Cauvery will be the second ship of Pratibha Shipping confined to Chennai waters.
Already the company’s another oil tanker, Pratibha Warna (dead weight tonnage 40,141), is under Madras High Court arrest order for non payment of dues.
