A lawsuit is likely to be filed against the owner of the ship that sank off Orissa's Paradip port earlier this month for allegedly providing forged documents, an official said on Monday.
The senior official said the port authorities found that the insurance certificate provided to the
port by the ship officials was forged.
"We came to know from the insurance company that the certificate number belongs to some other vessel. They (the officials of the sunken ship) forged somehow the insurance number and gave it to us," Deputy Conservator of Paradip Port GK Biswal told IANS.
"We are considering legal action against the ship owner. The port authorities are consulting maritime lawyers for a final decision," he said.
The vessel under a Mongolian flag capsized some five to six kilometres off the harbour area of the port, about 100 km from state capital Bhubaneswar, on September 9. It was carrying about 25,000 tonne of iron ore fines and over 900 tonne of oil.
As many as 27 crew members were on board when the ship sank, of them 26 were rescued by the port officials within three hours. However, body of a Ukrainian engineer was recovered 10 days later.