Sea Trans moves London court against owner of sunken vessel

Sea Trans Marine Private Ltd, a Kolkata-based shipping agency has filed a case in an international court in London against the owner and management company of the vessel Black Rose, which capsized near Paradeep port a month back.

The agency has sought stern action against the owner and management company of the sunken vessel for submitting fake documents and not cooperating in retrieving oil from the vessel.

Sources said, the sunken vessel had no valid documents. Even the insurance papers deposited by the owner of the vessel were found to be a fake.

The vessel was owned by Singapore-based Black Rose Maritime Limited and was managed by PANCAR Shipping Limited, also based out of Singapore.

The vessel was registered in Ulan Bator (Mongolia) and Sea Trans was the agency which sent iron ore from Orissa to China through this vessel.

The agency claimed that it had spent lakhs of rupees to trace the body of the Ukrainian chief engineer of the vessel who died in the mishap and also in air lifting his body to Ukraine to his family members.

This apart, the agency said it is also bearing the expenses pertaining to hotel accommodation and repartition of the 26 rescued crew members of the vessel.

Earlier, the manager of the company had requested the Paradeep Port Trust (PPT) authorities to sell the sunken vessel to meet the expenditure of retrieving oil from Black Rose.

Meanwhile, the PPT is in a quandary after the Union ministry of environment and forests on Wednesday asked the Orissa government to take legal action against it.

The ministry felt that the PPT authorities had violated of Wild Life Protection Act, Environment (Protection) Act and Water Pollution Act by failing to retrieve oil from the sunken vessel even after 28 days of the mishap.