Tanker allegedly involved in fishing boat collision bought to New Mangalore Port

• Mid-sea collision kills 3, grievously injures 2 and 9 go missing
• Ship captain denies collision

Panambur: The oil tanker identified as ‘MV Desh Shakti’, suspected to be involved in a collision with a fishing boat off Kochi early on Tuesday was intercepted near here and brought to New Mangalore Port on August 9^th.

The captain of the vessel belonging to the Shipping Corporation of India and on her way to Iran from Chennai port has denied of any incident of collision. The Mercantile Marine department and coastal police are investigating the case.

Incident

On Monday, the fishing boat had ventured into the sea from Munambam fishing harbour and the incident occurred around 23 nautical miles off Nattika coast. According to sources the workers were resting in the boat after fishing when the ship rammed the boat. The collision killed at least three fishermen and nine persons went missing.

The deceased have been identified as Yuvanathan (45), Manakkudy (50) and Yacob (57), all natives of Ramanthurai, Tamil Nadu. The mortal remains of the deceased were brought to Munambam Harbour.

According to Fisheries Deputy Director S Mahesh, there were 14 workers on board the fishing boat named Oceanic. The mid-sea collision completely damaged the boat. Of those onboard, 11 people were natives of Tamil Nadu, two were from West Bengal and one from Kerala.

Naren Sarkar (20) a native of Bengal and Edwin (29), a native of Colachel, Tamil Nadu were grievously injured in the collision and were brought to shore in a rescue boat and they are now receiving treatment at the General Hospital, Ernakulam.