No criminal action needed: Owners

No criminal action is needed, as the Merchantile Marine Department will go into all the issues relating to oil tanker Pratibha Cauvery, which ran aground off the Marina on October 31 last, counsel for the shipping company in Mumbai told the Madras High Court on Friday.

When the writ petition from Sankara Narayanan of Nesil village in Villupuram district praying for an interim compensation of Rs 25 lakh for the death of his brother Anand Mohandoss, the second engineer in the ship, came up on Friday before Justice N Paul Vasanthakumar, counsel told this to the judge.

Counsel also suggested to the court that the ship could be berthed at the Kattupalli port, handled by the L&T company, as the Chennai Port Trust said that there was no space on its premises. When the judge reminded his earlier direction that the ship could be moved out until the company paid Rs 6 crore, as six persons had died, counsel said the ship was still in the jurisdiction of the High Court. The judge directed him to file a counter in this connection.

Petitioner’s counsel S Prabakaran told the judge that an FIR had been filed for an offence under Sec 174 of the CrPC (suspicious death). He prayed the court to register a case for an offence under Sec 304(ii) of the IPC. The judge adjourned the matter till November 16.