FIR registered in Mumbai against captain of barge P305

The First Information Report is lodged under sections 304(II) (an act done with knowledge that it is likely to cause death), 338 (causing grievous hurt by an act endangering life or personal safety of others) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code against the barge captain and others

Mumbai Police have registered a case of negligence against the captain of Papaa-305 (P305), the barge that sank in the Arabian Sea amid Cyclone Tauktae, leading to the loss of at least 49 lives. The Yellow Gate police station have based the case on a complaint lodged by the barge engineer.

Rescued crew members of P305 disembark the INS Kochi naval ship after arriving in Mumbai on May 19. (AFP)

The First Information Report is lodged under sections 304(II) (an act done with knowledge that it is likely to cause death), 338 (causing grievous hurt by an act endangering life or personal safety of others) and 34 (common intention) of the Indian Penal Code against the barge captain and others.

“We have registered a complaint against the captain (of the barge) and others on the basis of a statement given by chief engineer Rahman Shaikh who has complained that an alert was issued by the meteorological department but was not taken seriously by the captain and others who should have moved the barge to a safer place,” said joint commissioner of police Vishwas Nangre Patil (Law and Order).

“It is at a very preliminary stage but investigation has started,” added Patil.

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Another police officer said they have recorded the statements of more than 100 survivors who were rescued by Indian Navy and Coast Guard from barge P305. The concerned company has also been asked to submit the details of employees working on the barge, he added.

According to Afcons Infrastructure, which leads the consortium that had chartered the barge along with its marine crew, the master of P305 chose to stay in the sea despite instructions for returning to Mumbai harbour in the wake of warnings for Cyclone Tauktae.

The barge was deployed at a platform in Heera oil fields, one of the largest of the ONGC rigs in the Arabian sea. It got de-anchored on Sunday night and according to deputy chief of naval staff, vice admiral Murlidhar Sadashiv Pawar, sank at about 7pm on Monday, forcing most of its 261 crew members to jump in a very choppy sea and rough weather that made the Navy’s search and rescue operation one of the most challenging operations the force has undertaken in four decades.

The Navy has so far rescued 186 crew members of the barge and recovered 49 bodies even as search is on for 37 missing persons -- 26 from P305 and 11 crew members of a tug boat, Varaprada, who also went missing during the cyclone.The Navy has so far rescued two crew members of Varaprada.