Pratibha told to pay more for relief

The Madras High Court has directed the management of tanker Pratibha Cauvery in Mumbai to deposit a sum of Rs 87.45 lakh towards an interim measure to the legal heirs of the deceased sailors.

Justice N Paul Vasanthakumar gave the direction, while disposing of a batch of six writ petitions from the family members of the deceased crew of the ship, on Friday.

Of the total sum, Rs 24.45 lakh would be given to the legal heirs of deceased sailor Anand Mohan, Rs 18 lakh each to the legal heirs of Joman Joseph and Krishna C Puthiya Purasyil and Rs 9 lakh each to the legal heirs of K Niranjan, Khamitkar Raj Ramesh and Rushabh Jadhav.

The company has been directed to deposit the above amounts after deducting Rs 30 lakh that was already deposited on December 3 last, before the Registrar-General of the High Court within four weeks. The RG should disburse the mentioned respective amounts to the legal heirs of the deceased crew, the judge said.