A case of culpable homicide has been registered against two directors of Pratibha Shipping Company after they were arrested in Pune on Tuesday, four months after the death of six crew members of MT Pratibha Cauvery.
The ship had run aground on October 31 off Elliots Beach and six of the crew died when the lifeboat in which they were trying to get to shore capsized. The directors were remanded in judicial custody on Wednesday.
Police said a special team led by Mohan Raj, Assistant Commissioner, Adyar, had gone to Shivaji Nagar, Pune, and arrested Madan Anand Rao Pawar (55) and Suresh Anand Rao Pawar (51)—both directors of Pratibha Shipping Company Limited.
They were booked under IPC section 304 (ii) (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), a charge that could attract imprisonment of 10 years or fine or both.
The police, which had kept track of the people who had obtained anticipatory bail in connection with the case, sent the special team to Pune. There they traced the directors to Shivaji Nagar and, with the help of the local police, arrested the directors, the police said. The duo was then produced before the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Pune, to obtain a transit warrant. They were brought to Chennai and were produced before a court in Saidapet and were remanded in judicial custody.