Death of six sailors: Two directors of Mumbai shipping firm held

Four months after the death of six sailors of an oil tanker, two directors of the Mumbai-based shipping company have been arrested in Pune.

Chennai: Four months after the death of six sailors of an oil tanker that ran aground here during a cyclone, two directors of the Mumbai-based shipping company have been arrested in Pune by the Tamil Nadu Police in connection with the case. Madan Anand Rao Pawar and Suresh Anand Rao Pawar of the Pratibha Shipping Company Ltd were arrested yesterday by a special team probing the incident. The duo were brought here on a transit warrant from a Pune court and were produced before a city court, which today remanded them to 15 days judicial custody, police said.

With this, the number of those arrested in the case has risen to four. Police had earlier arrested two local agents of the oil tanker Pratibha Cauvery, in November. The ship had run aground on October 31 last year under the impact of strong winds when cyclone Nilam struck the Chennai coast. Six of its sailors died after the lifeboat in which they were escaping capsized. During investigation, it was ascertained that the Pratibha Shipping Company, Mumbai and its agents, the Chennai-based Sea World Shipping and Logistics Private Limited had "knowingly failed to rectify the repairs" in the life boat. They also allegedly failed to save the lives of the crew members in distress, police said. PTI