Barge captain booked for culpable homicide

A day after the Mumbai Police announced that it would carry out a probe into the deaths of personnel onboard barge P305 off Mumbai coast, the Yellow Gate police station on Friday registered an FIR for culpable homicide not amounting to murder against the captain of the ill-fated barge. So far, 51 dead bodies have been recovered and 24 people are still missing after the barge sank due to Cyclone Tauktae.

Captain Balwinder Singh, however, is one of the missing persons. A case of causing death by negligence has also been registered against him.

The case was filed after the barge’s chief engineer Rehman Sheikh indicated

The Mumbai police filed a case against the captain Balwinder Singh after the barge’s chief engineer Rehman Sheikh indicated that the captain ignored weather warnings and chose not to move the vessel away from the path of the storm.

that the captain ignored weather warnings and chose not to move the vessel away from the path of the storm.

Sheikh was rescued after spending nearly 24 hours at sea, amid the wreckage of the barge.

Sheikh is currently admitted at Apollo Hospital in Tardeo and he told his brother, Alam Sheikh, another chief engineer, that the captain said wind speed is 40 knots and it will pass within two hours. The master of P-305 chose to move just 200 metres away from the massive ONGC platform.

According to Alam, his friend Anand told him about the hole in the barge and he immediately called the owner and informed him to get the vessel back. However, he did not receive any response.

The barge P305 was carrying 261 persons when it sank 35 nautical miles off the city’s coast on Monday, as Cyclone Tauktae battered India’s west coast.

It has been five days since the barge sank and so far 51 bodies have been recovered and 24 people are still missing. The Navy is still leading the search and rescue operation to find more survivors.