Container ship on fire in Bay of Bengal, 22 crew members rescued
Kolkata, June 15: The Indian Coast Guard on Thursday rescued all 22 crew members of a merchant container vessel after a devastating fire broke out in the ship in the Bay of Bengal, a senior coast guard official said here.
The container ship, MV SSL Kolkata, that was on its way to the city with 464 containers on board, caught fire on Wednesday night, the officer said.
"Our Coast Guard ship arrived in the area in the morning. The captain decided to save the crew and abandon the ship. On his request, we have successfully picked up all the 22 survivors. As of now, all 22 people are being brought to Haldia in the coast guard ship," Coast Guard Commander (NE) Inspector General K.S. Sheoran said here.
"The sea was very bad at the accident site. There were high waves and the wind was very strong. Almost 60-70 percent of the ship was on fire by that time," he said.
The reason of the fire is still not confirmed.
According to the Coast Guard, the owners of the ship, Shreyas Shipping & Logistics have hired tugboats from the nearby ports that would work on salvage operation of the remaining goods, unaffected in the blaze.
"The owner of the ship has hired big tugboats from Haldia port and Dhamra port in Odisha. They have also engaged salvage companies from Singapore. The salvage operations will start after sometime. The first priority was to save the captain and the crew, which the coast guard has done successfully," the officer added.
The fire on board the merchant vessel was of such magnitude that a Seaking 42C helicopter and a Dornier aircraft from Vizag had to be launched on Thursday morning at first day light, in coordination with the coast guard, to assist in search and rescue.
However, the two aeroplanes were rooted back to Vizag after receiving a message that search and rescue operations would be over by the time the two aircraft reached overhead.
According to the monitoring team of the Haldia dock, the ship is likely to be grounded.
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Assam govt moves SC against anticipatory bail to Congress leader Pawan Khera
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New Delhi (PTI): The Assam government has moved the Supreme Court against the Telangana High Court order granting one-week transit anticipatory bail to Congress leader Pawan Khera in a case registered against him for levelling allegations against Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma's wife.
The petition was filed on Sunday through advocate Shuvodeep Roy and is likely to be taken up for hearing this week.
On April 10, the high court granted one-week transit anticipatory bail to Khera.
The high court gave him a week's time to file an application before the court concerned and granted him relief with certain conditions.
"Without expressing any opinion on the merits of the case, this court is of the view that the petitioner has made out a case for grant of limited transit anticipatory bail, as his apprehension of arrest appears to be reasonable and supported by material on record," the high court had said in its order.
The conditions were that the petitioner shall be released on bail in the event of arrest on his executing a personal bond for Rs one lakh with two sureties for the like sum each, cooperate with the investigation and make himself available for interrogation as and when required by the Investigating Officer and that he shall not leave the country without prior permission of the competent Court.
The conditions further include that the petitioner shall, within the stipulated period, approach the competent jurisdictional court in Assam and seek appropriate relief and he, being a public figure, shall exercise restraint in making any further public statements in relation to the subject matter of the present case, which may prejudice the investigation, the order said.
The Congress leader on April 5 had alleged that the Assam CM's wife, Riniki Bhuyan Sarma, has multiple passports and foreign property, which were not declared in the chief minister's election affidavit for the April 9 Assembly polls in that state.
The case against Khera was registered at the Guwahati Crime Branch Police Station under several sections of the BNS, including 175 (false statement in connection with an election), 35 (Right of private defence of the body and of property) and 318 (cheating).
Khera, who approached the high court on April 7, showed his residential address in Hyderabad. He had requested the high court to release him on bail in the event of his arrest.
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