Proceedings against ship captain quashed

Justice MS Ramesh who quashed the proceedings pending before a Magistrate court in Saidapet, said, “The prosecution has not clearly established the proximity between his acts and the death of the crew members and the act was due to the omissions on his part. Hence, no useful purpose would be served in rendering a finding on the other aspects.”

The judge was allowing a criminal original petition filed under Sec. 482 Cr P C by Rai challenging the proceedings, on June 26 last year.

Rai’s counsel B Sathish Sundar had submitted that the overt acts attributed to the petitioner, if taken on the face of it, cannot mean that he had committed certain willful acts or omissions which had probably caused the death of crew members. It was because of the natural calamity and not the wrong decision of the captain of the ship, he argued.

Accepting the submissions, Justice Ramesh said, “The petitioner is being mulcted with a charge under Section 304(2) IPC, when during a heavy storm which could not contain the vessel to hold its anchor, the captain, orders the crew to abandon the ship. While the crew were in the life boat, it capsized due to heavy storm and rough sea conditions and the petitioner, who was the person ashore, is made liable for certain acts of alleged omissions.”

Also, on holding that the documents produced before this court are to establish that the vessel was sailing under proper authority from Kolkata to Chennai and came to be stranded while awaiting further orders for repairs from the port authorities, the judge said, “These documents obtained from the authorities concerned cannot be discarded or ignored.”

“When such documents reveal that the petitioner herein did not have any overt act to mulct him with a charge this court would be well within its powers inlooking into such documents for securing the ends of justice,” Justice Ramesh said and quashed the criminal proceedings.