Chennai

Kin of dead fishermen urge authorities to detain Singaporean ship

C Shivakumar

CHENNAI: Denied fair and proper compensation and not even a single word of remorse, the family of two Tamil fishermen whose bodies were retrieved after their mechanised boat IFB Rabha was hit by Singapore flagship vessel MV APL Le Havre, have served a legal notice to the authorities to detain the vessel. Sumathi, wife of Henlin Alexander and daughter of Dasan Channappa, whose bodies were retrieved, has served a legal notice to Ministry of External Affairs, Director General of Shipping, Shipping Secretary and Indian Coast Guard seeking their intervention to initiate negotiations with the shipping company or P&I club or Flag State Administration to ensure that fair and proper compensation is paid to the victims’ family as the accident took place due to the ship’s rash and negligent navigation by violating Convention on the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea, 1972.

In her representation, Sumathi pointed out to the authorities that the collision by the foreign ship caused a damage to the Indian Citizen as per sections 443 and 444 of the M.S.Act, and hence the ship MV APL Le Havre should be detained till a fair and proper compensation is determined and settled to the victims’ families. “We request you not to allow the ship to leave the waters of India, till a rightful compensation is settled,” she said. There were 14 fishermen seven each from West Bengal and Tamil Nadu in the mechanised boat IFB Rabah, owned by Mamentakathu Jaffar of Beypore in Kozhikode, when the collision happened 40 nautical miles west of new Mangalore on April 11, 2021.

While two members of the crew survived, bodies of three fishermen were retrieved, and the fate of the others is unknown. When Express contacted Director General of Shipping Amitabh Kumar, he said an investigation by police is ongoing. Sumathi, mother of a nineyear- old and a seven-year-old children and taking care of an aged mother, lost both the breadwinners of the family, whose bodies were handed over to her and thereafter no details were shared by the Fishing Boat owner. With no male member to take care, the family is left to struggle on its own. “Usually, whenever my husband and father sail together, they are back by evening. This time they did not return.

We had been totally dependent on them for everything. How will I take care of my boys now?” she says. Sumathi says the shipping company has not even sent a condolence to the victims’ families so far, nor have they contacted the grieving family on humanitarian grounds. She alleged that she was contacted by the boat owner and by some middle men to settle for a meagre compensation. Blaming the merchant vessel for negligence, Sumathi, in the legal notice, stated that her husband sailed as serang (Skipper) for past nine years and he was highly skilled and well-experienced, and never encountered any such incident in the high seas. “The rash and negligent navigation and failure to comply with the Convention on the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea, 1972 (COLREGs) resulted in the MV APL Le Havre killing the fishermen,” the legal notice stated.

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