The investigation to trace the cargo vessel that allegedly rammed a fishing boat off the Beypore coast on October 11 is moving at a snail’s pace. Although a month has passed since the incident, the probe has made little progress, fishermen have alleged.
Leading fishermen’s organisations said there were attempts to scuttle the probe by the accused mercantile vessel owners. The investigation, now headed by the Director General of Shipping, has been lagging behind without proper follow-up measures on the part of the State government, they said.
Awaiting update
Officials at the Beypore coastal police station said they were yet to get any update on the case after it was handed over to investigators in Kochi. “Only a first information report was registered here and all the follow-up inquiries were coordinated by the investigators in Kochi,” they added.
Fisheries Department officials in Kozhikode, who initially looked into the incident and coordinated the rescue activities, said they had handed over all the files to the Tamil Nadu government for follow-up action.
In the incident that took place about 40 nautical miles off the Beypore coast, three fishermen had gone missing.
The Coast Guard was able to recover the body of only one victim after a 48-hour search.
Leaders of the Kerala Malsyathozhilali Aikya Vedi alleged that the Mercantile Marine Department, which was supposed to handle the primary investigation, had been remaining idle for years. Kerala had witnessed nine cases of ship-fishing boat collisions in the last one decade and the identity of many international ships involved in such incidents remained untraced, they added.
