Enrica Lexie set to sail off Kochi !!!- but still could not

       For the past two months – the Afromax Enrica Lexie has captured many headlines and hogged limelight.  It was much debated as to whether it was cold blooded murder by trigger happy Italian Marines or was it just the apprehensive action of Marines providing security against piracy threats !  More were the news about Italian diplomacy trying to get better of the systems and the Q on the jurisdiction.  After protracted struggle, the perpetrators of the crime,   Italian Marines identified as Latore Massimiliano and Salvatore Girone were arrested and lodged in jail.  Some more drama unfolded with those accused protesting on the food and accommodation.  

On 29th Mar 12, different line unfolded as the  Kerala High Court  granted permission for departure of the  Italian vessel Enrica Lexie which had been  detained at Cochin Port.  Justice P S Gopinathan directed the release of the vessel ;  On a plea by the ship owner seeking permission to continue its voyage, the court said the order to release the vessel would not interfere with the course of the ongoing probe. The court directed the vessel owner Dolphin Tankers to execute a bond of Rs. 3 crore before the Deputy Conservator of the Cochin Port Trust with an undertaking to produce the vessel, master and the crew as and when required.  Opposing the move, Advocate General K P Dandapani submitted that in the event the forensic lab report points at any involvement of the remaining four marines on board Enrica Lexie in the incident, the court shall be permitted to take them into custody.

Whilst a ship cannot remain for an indeterminable period of time, some shipping sources apprehend that the sailing out of Kochi might affect the investigation and there is the possibility of evidences on board the ship getting lost and whether there was involvement of more Marines would never be out.   There is some criticism that this high profile case has had many loop holes with some reports suggesting that the log books which contain critical data have not been properly analysed.  Some anyalysts say that the sailing away would help both the captain and the ship owner to escape from Indian Law. The ship owners had on their part filed petition seeking release citing that huge expenditure was being incurred by them with the docking of vessel at Kochi and that they would fully cooperate with the investigation.  

So the ghosts of the two fishermen killed -  Ajesh Binki, 25, and Gelastine, 45,  would haunt while the Marines Latorre Massimillano and Salvatore Girone, presently languish in the Central Prison in the state capital Thiruvananthapuram.  Italian Defence Minister Giampaolo Di Paola visited the jail and met the marines.  The minister later called on Chief Minister Oommen Chandy along with a large Italian delegation.  Mr. Chandy was assisted at the meeting by top police officers among others and after a 15-minute interaction with the Italian delegation, he and Paola engaged in a one-to-one interaction.

What was discussed is not known, and was there need for any confidential discussion on something pending in a Court of law cannot be answered.  There are opinion that the sailing out order portrays the failure on the  State in defending the case.  There was delay in filing the seizure report and arraigning the captain of the vessel  which could be viewed as crucial. 

The Court has  directed the shipping company to give an undertaking that the vessel, its master and crew would appear as and when called upon by competent authorities with three weeks' prior notice. It is stated that the owners of the vessel  argued they could not take responsibility of the marines as they were not part of the ship's crew and they were deputed by the Italian navy for security.

Only time will reveal whether this case was handled properly despite the initial tall claims made by the State Government and it would be unfortunate that by the time, the facts are known, most would have forgotten of this case – a la the killing of Indian fishermen closer to their own coast………..

 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A happy ending for the Ship, its Owners and those on Board – or so I thought, upon concluding this but today there is more news. 

Now there are reports of a major   setback for sailing out of Indian waters, as  a Division Bench of the Kerala High Court on Friday(30^th March 2012)  stayed the Single Judge’s order granting permission to the vessel to leave the Cochin Port till Monday.    The Division Bench of Acting Chief Justice Manjula Chellur and Justice V Chitambaresh directed vessel owner Dolphin Tankers to wait for three more days.

Reports state that the Court issued the directive while considering an appeal filed by relatives of the fishermen, who were shot dead by Italian marines on board the vessel, challenging the Single Judge’s order.  The earlier directive permitted sailing after furnishing a bond for Rs.3 crore before the Deputy Conservator of the Cochin Port Trust with an undertaking to produce the vessel, master and the crew as and when required by the Centre, Deputy Conservator, and Mercantile Marine Department.  The present directive of Division Bench expresses its disagreement stating that the amount is meagre and reportedly queried on why Ship owners cannot furnish sum of Rs. 10 crore.

With regards – S. Sampathkumar

                          

Herath spins Lanka to victory at Galle

It was once a popular Question in Sports Quiz :  Which Cricketer has more initials than the words in his Name ?

It was the Srilankan left arm pacer ‘Vaas’ – WPUJC Vaas (Warnakulasuriya Patabendige Ushantha Joseph Chaminda Vaas)  and the man who took Sri Lanka to a creditable victory at Galle can  almost challenge him with name  - it was the left arm spinner : Herath with long initials - Herath Mudiyanselage Rangana Keerthi Bandara Herath.  Herath the bowler with unusual action has taken 132 test wickets in 36 atches and 23 wickets in 29 one dayers. 

In the Test in which Spinners domianted throughout, Rangana Herath became only the fifth Sri Lanka bowler to pick up a ten-wicket match haul as England failed in their chase of 340 in the final innings.  It was a good start for the Lankans after the losses suffered in their previous four series.   Sri Lanka's win is only their second since Muttiah Muralitharan's retirement and their first at home.

Herath had a match haul of 12 for 171 which is next to Murali's  13 for 171 at Galle.   Six out of the last seven matches there have produced a result.  At one point of time England was cruising along with 6 wickets in hand and only 107 to be made but lost the match by 75 runs. 

Had it been here, perhaps he would immediately be heralded as the ‘man of the future’ and permanent replacement for the great Muthiah Muralidharan.  Lankans played good cricket and their bowlers were ably supported by some sharp catching.   Trott carried along making a patient century displaying compact defence and appetite to score runs, the other members failed and hence the defeat.  How many times, critics have cruelly analysed Sachin’s centuries as not helping the team’s cause ?  - the obdurate innings of Mahela Jayawardene and the poor catching by the England in the first innings all helped the outcome.

In an unrelated development, there is news of Kiwi Jesse Ryder playing his second IPL season for Pune Warriors.  If you wonder what the news is about -  the New Zealand batsman  had taken an indefinite break from cricket to resolve personal issues.  In his come back Ryder will be supported in India by his manager Aaron Klee and clinical psychologist Karen Nimmo.

His cricketing talents have never been doubted but his performance off the ground has landed him in big trouble.  He was dropped from the New Zealand squad for the third ODI against South Africa for breaking team protocol, and then left out of the Test series as well. A protocol of not consuming alcohol when rehabilitating from injury ! and reacting to taunts of public.  He was earlier also fined for intoxicated and rowdy behaviour and another indiscretion of putting his right hand through a glass window at a bar.  He was involved in an incident against WI also. 

So, IPL Window not only provides opportunity (read huge money) to foreign players but also rehabilitates !

With regards – S. Sampathkumar.

30^th March 2012

Hit and Run at Sea and out-of-court compensation : Prabhu Daya

I had earlier posted of ‘hit and run’ accident at Sea involving a bulk carrier.  The initial reports stated that two fishermen had died; subsequent reports indicate a higher no. – 5 fishermen having died. .  In that ghastly accident, that occurred 12 nautical miles off the Alappuzha coast in Kerala in the early hours of 1st Mar 2012, 2 fishermen were found dead  and a third one’s body was retrieved from the wreckage of the fishing boat later. Two more fishermen were feared missing.   The trawler - MFV Don No.1 - was fishing in the Arabian Sea near Alappuzha district of Kerala on March 1, when the rogue ship 'travelling at high speed and being navigated rashly and negligently' dashed against the trawler.   The rogue vessel was reported to be a Singapore flagged cargo vessel with IMO no. 9231573 of 189 M length and 32M beam with call sign S6EJ3 - M.V. Prabhu Daya, a 52,822 DWT 2001-built bulk carrier enroute from Panaji to Singapore.  The version of the survivors was that they were resting in the boat after casting the net a little after midnight when a ship rammed into them. The boat, attached to the Neentakara fishing harbour in Kollam, was about 15 to 18 nautical miles away from Alappuzha coast at the time of the mishap.

The distance between Chennai and Alappuzha is 730 km approx and would take around 11 hours – for a ship much more because they have to come through a circuitous route.  After studying the routes of several ships that passed by the location at that time, the coast guard summoned Prabhu Daya to Chennai for an investigation.   Curiously enough, when the vessel was off the Trincomalee coast on its way to Chennai, a crew member fell into the sea. He was rescued by a fishing trawler and taken to a hospital inSri Lanka. It remains unclear if it was an accident or a suicide attempt.

Much analysis was done at Chennai and it was stated that the vessel  had made some unusual diversions near the accident location, as revealed by the  electronic charts prepared by the Indian Coast Guard (ICG).  Other  data from the voyage data recorder (VDR), global positioning systems (GPS) and automatic identification systems (AIS)” were also analysed and after interrogation at Chennai, the suspicion was strengthened.  It was also reported that the  scrape marks  found on the hull of the ship during the inspection and the  underwater study of the vessel by the Navy could conclusively nail its involvement in the accident. 

After the incident at sea, the Ambalapuzha police in Alappuzha district registered a case first against the unidentified ship under sections of 304-a (causing death by negligence), 280 (rash driving of a vessel) and 377 (causing hurt by act endangering life and safety of others).  Subsequently,  Madras high court  ordered the arrest of Prabhu Daya, after the trawler's owner invoked the court's admiralty jurisdiction and sought the court  order for the arrest and sale of the vessel. 

In the petition it was stated that all the seven crew members aboard the vessel were thrown into the sea. Ship's captain Gordon Charles Pereira and seaman Chauhan Mayur Virendra Kumar jointly filed anticipatory bail petitions in the high court, apprehending arrest. The captain said investigating officials had ignored the presence of a tanker - MT Grade Victoria, flying the Panamian flag - which was present in the vicinity of the collision.  Later Kerala Police arrested the Captain.

There was some drama as even after  Pereira was taken into custody, he could not be brought to the shore as the Chennai Port Trust (CPT) raised objection saying it would leave the vessel at outer anchorage without a captain.  The Captain was later moved to the Alappuzha sub-jail. Three persons were accused in the case and the first accused was the Second Officer who allegedly fell overboard off the Trincomalee coast.

Later there were reports that the Ship Owners successfully negotiated out of court settlement with the dependents of those dead.  Newspaper reports suggest an amount closer to Rs.25 lakhs for each of the 5 victims was agreed upon as compensation and that they would be filing a joint application before the Kerala High Court that the compensation was made out-of-court.  What will happen to the criminal case remains to be seen.

Sure the dependents of the deceased succour but money can never compensate and human life can never be compensated by monetary value.

With regards

S. Sampathkumar.

Made on 30^th Mar 12 and posted on the blog now.

WSH - Chennai Cheetahs out of the tournament

There was another farce and the much feared Chennai Cheetahs were reduced to nothing going down to Mumbai Marines in the last of the league matches.

World Series Hockey (WSH) is an initiative of Indian Hockey Federation with the objective to reinvigorate hockey and the matches are played between clubs more in the fashion of IPL – but with lesser degree of viewership.  To make the game more interesting these are divided in 4 quarters of 17.5 minutes each.   

Chennai Cheetahs had sought to build up a good team – their captain is Brent James Livermore, who played with distinction for Australia and coached by Jose Brasa, the Spaniard.  Some big names such as Adam Sinclair,  Mujtabas, Vikaram Pillay and the Pakistani Syed Imran Warsi.

Chennai had to win yesterday but it was not to be - Syed Imran Warsi, whom everyone had dreaded facing for the last 30 days, evoked nothing more than a wry smile from a rival defender as he struck his first drag-flick goal of the day with just five minutes remaining, leaving many with the sinking feeling that the league had come to an abrupt end for the mesmerising and talented Chennai Cheetahs.  Mumbai Marine’s foreign player Troy Sutherland ensured a crushing 4-1 win in the 56^th match of the tournament – the last of the league matches in the inaugural Bridgestone World Series Hockey.   Marines  defence was too good with  Adrin D’Souza dazzling at the post.  Marines took an unassailable 2-0 lead at half-time, scoring once in each quarter while Adrian D’Souza led from the front making two great saves to stop Warsi from converting his drag-flicks at the other end. 

Cheetahs did sparkle well with Warsi being the highest goal scorer but still could not qualify for the next round.    Now the first Semi finals would be held at KSHA Stadium, Bengalure on 1^st Apr 2012 between : Sher-E-Punjab  against  Karnataka Lions.  The second Semis between Chandigarh Comets and Pune Strykers would be played at MHA Mahindra stadium, Mumbai.   Watch the action live on Neo Cricket & Neo Sports

With regards – S. Sampathkumar.