‘Data in Voyage Data Recorder on board the vessel erased'
The South Asian Fishermen Fraternity has alleged serious deficiencies in the investigation conducted by Kerala Police and the Mercantile Marine Department into the killing of two fishermen by the naval guards of the Italian ship Enrica Lexie on February 15.
In a statement issued here on Saturday, fraternity general secretary Fr. Churchil said the recent revelation that the data contained in the Voyage Data Recorder on board the vessel had been erased by those on board was just one instance of the serious errors and lapses on the part of the investigating agencies.
Mudslinging had already commenced between the two agencies investigating the case and successful prosecution of the marines would not happen. There was also the likelihood of the ship sailing out without paying any compensation.
“Before the High Court, the ship owners are now attempting to disassociate themselves from the naval marines by stating that they are not liable for the actions of the marines who are under the Italian government. The naval marines, on the other hand, are contending that they are on sovereign duty on the vessel and the Indian law and courts cannot try them,” he said.
However, it was a settled principle of maritime law that for all offences involving a vessel, the master/captain of the vessel, being the supreme authority on board the ship, was directly answerable and liable. In all incidents causing death involving ships, the captain was as invariably arrayed as an accused. But right from the beginning, the police had decided to confine the case to the two marines, Fr. Churchil said.
The investigating agency further made the huge error of not conducting search and seizure immediately after the incident, thus giving much time for those on board to tamper with the evidence. Finally, when they did search the vessel, they failed to seize the most crucial evidences on board.
The Mercantile Marine Department, which had the expertise to advise the police on the equipment and documents to be seized apparently, did not assist the police. The result was that crucial objects of evidentiary value such as the log book of the ship — the absence of which would seriously prejudice the criminal prosecution — was not seized.
It was settled by various cases under Indian laws that no criminal trial involving a ship could be sustained without production of the log book maintained on board the said ship. Similarly, nothing was known about the seizure of the crucial on-board equipment or systems, Voyage Chart, Voyage Data Recorder, Electronic Chart Display and Information System, Voyage Plan, Voyage Plotter, Automatic Identification System, G.M.D.S.S., Automatic Radar Plotting Aid, and Radar data. Without seizure of these crucial materials, the criminal trial was bound to fail.
The general secretary said the investigating agencies could still get hold of some of the evidence and take the captain into custody if evidence had been tampered with. The serious errors already committed by the police and the investigating agencies would also detrimentally affect the claim preferred by the relatives of the deceased fishermen.
In a memorandum to Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, Fr. Churchil demanded that the Chief Minister take the initiative to settle the civil suit for compensation to the families of the fishermen outside the court. Representing the case of next of kin of Ajeesh Pink, Fr. Churchil said the poor fishermen's families would otherwise have to wait for years to get the compensation.
Nothing can condone the killing of the fishermen at sea. Condolences to the family. The Arabian Sea is plagued by Somali pirates who hijack ships and hold them for ransom. Millions of Dollars are exchanged for the release of ship, cargo and crew. The pirates are ruthless and they have struck fear in the hearts of the sailors. Armed with modern automatic weapons they plunder the ships with impunity. Increasingly as ships began to sail away from the Somali coast, the pirates have been launching attacks from mother ships and hijackings as far off as the Indian Coast are not unknown. Policing the Arabian sea by International Navy has not been effective due to the extent of area to be protected and the costs. Many countries have agreed to allow armed guards on board. The shooting of the fisherman is the direct result of arming the Merchant Ships without working out the rules of engagement. Unless the UN steps in and resolves the problem of Somali piracy more innocent lives will be lost.
All the work to sabotage the case has been done and the Italians
will definitively be set free by unpatriotic Indians who have no
feelings for their fellow citizens.The Italians and the ship would
have been free by now but for Piravom elections. Just wait and see
what happens after the elections. May be the families will be
persuaded by the political class for a settlement and the Italians
will be set free claiming that the incident happened outside our territorial limits. Already all evidences have been tampered or
lost.The justice will never prevail.
The voyage data recorder is the only thing that can give you navigation related information.All the rest mentioned here is totally irrelevant.The VDR only records the last 12 hours data/inputs from various navigation aids,if the time exceeds 12 hours the data is overwritten. In any case the data will only be able to tell where the ship was, and if any strange maneuvers happened, including voice data on the bridge.That said, the log book and other written records should have been seized.The Italians will do anything to confuse the matter to get away.Murder is murder and must be dealt with as such.
It is surprising that christian priests are in the forefront of any action . Here again we father in action. It is high time the government looks into the their role .
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