Mumbai: Over a month after tug boat Varaprada sunk in the Arabian sea near Palghar coast due to cyclone Tauktae killing 11 crew members onboard, the Mumbai police on Friday booked the tug boat owner for culpable homicide not amounting to murder.
A First Information Report (FIR) has been registered at the Yellow Gate police station on Friday against Glory Ship Management company and it's owner Rajendra Sahi, said Yellow Gate police officials
During its investigation, the police team went to Kerala and took statement of one of the survivors, Francis K Simon who was a second engineer on the tug boat and based on his statement registered an offence under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections for culpable homicide not amounting to murder (304(2)) and common intention (34). In his statement to the police, Francis had reportedly claimed that the company intentionally did not carry out repair or maintenance work of the tug boat.
The tug boat had been hired by Afcon company for its accommodation barge Gal Constructor. On May 17 due to cyclone Tauktae both Varaprada and Gal Constructor went adrift. The tug boat later sank while the accommodation barge was stuck in shallow waters near Vadarai Coast bear Palghar.
At the time of the incident there were 13 people were onboard Varaprada, of them 2 were rescued by the Indian Navy while bodies of 8 washed ashore in Maharashtra and Gujarat coast while three remain missing.
