KOLLAM: The Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) Court on Wednesday asked the Chief Investigating Officer, probing into the killing of fishermen, to ‘thoroughly examine’ whether the captain of Enrica Lexie had followed the guidelines set by the Ministry of Shipping regarding the deployment of armed security guards on merchant ships.
The court directive came while dismissing a petition seeking the arrest of the Italian vessel’s captain Umberto Vitelli, for the murder of two Indian fishermen.
Observing that while in Indian waters, all ships, including foreign-flagged ships, and captains are responsible to comply with these guidelines, the court held that the Chief Investigating Officer was duty bound to ascertain whether Enrica Lexie was also bound to obey these guidelines.
“My view is that then only they (investigating team) can reach a conclusion regarding the complicity of the captain or otherwise in the case. It is expected that the investigating agency would consider the observations of the court very seriously in the course of further investigation in this case,” the order passed by CJM A K Gopakumar said.