Udupi: Former state minister and JDS candidate from the Udupi-Chikkamagaluru Lok Sabha constituency Pramod Madhwaraj on Saturday, demanded that a judicial enquiry by a retired Supreme Court judge be conducted into the case of the missing crew of the ill-fated Suvarna Tribhuja.
It can be recalled that the Suvarna Tribhuja, a fishing boat, departed from the Malpe harbour in December 2018 and went missing a few days later. The wreckage of the boat was found a few days ago off the coast of Malvan in Maharashtra by the Indian Navy, four and a half months after it went missing.
Addressing a press meet here, Madhwaraj reiterated that the boat capsized after a collision with an Indian Navy ship. “A fishing boat will not capsize on its own and if the crew faced technical problems, they would have had several opportunities to abandon ship. However, nothing of this sort was reported which means that it sank after a collision. INS Kochi is reponsible for the death of seven fishermen,” he charged.
He then accused the Centre and Udupi MLA Raghupathi Bhat of misleading the missing fishermen’s family members by trying to close the case before the elections ended. He also alleged that the Centre had knowledge of INS Kochi’s involvement in the incident and that they indulged in a cover-up because of the on-going Lok Sabha elections.
Speaking about the search operations conducted by the Navy, Pramod said that there was no need to stage such a drama and accused MLA Bhat of playing politics over the death of the fishermen. “It is just an election gimmick,” he said.
“Yesterday, I released images of the INS Kochi after it collided with the Suvarna Tribhuja. It has sustained damage after colliding with the fishing boat,” he claimed and demanded that, apart from paying Rs 25 lakhs as compensation to each of the missing fishermen’s families, the Navy should also compensate the boat owner.
Accusing the Navy of keeping the nation in the dark about the incident, Madhwaraj said that he will write a detailed letter to the President of India, Prime Minister, Defense Minister and Chief Ministers of Maharashtra and Karnataka. “I will demand that a judicial enquiry to be conducted by a retired Supreme Court judge and if the government fails to do this, I will move the Supreme Court,” he warned.
Congress leaders Janardhan Bhandarkar, Sathish Ameen Padukere, Bhaskar Rao Kidiyoor and Ganesh Nergi and District JDS President Yogish Shetty were also present.
