CBI Probe Into Black Rose Sinking Case Underway

Paradip: The CBI has begun probe into the sinking of the Mongolian cargo ship Black Rose off the Paradip coast in September 2009.

Sources said a senior CBI officer from New Delhi, who arrived at Paradip on July 11, has started collecting all relevant information from the Port office. However, neither the Port officials nor the CBI is providing any information to the media with the latter maintaining utmost secrecy in its investigation.

Talking to the media on the condition of anonymity, a senior Port official said the CBI officer is collecting information on the date the ill-fated ship had come to the port, which company was transporting the iron ore in this cargo ship and who was present on the ship on the day it sunk.

The official also said that while Ukrainian chief engineer Oleksander Ilyushchenko was killed and some crew members were injured in the mishap, 26 were rescued from the ship by the Coast Guard personnel. “The whereabouts of these 26 rescued crews is not yet known. We have no idea whether the CBI had interrogated these crews,” he added.

The ill-fated ship, carrying 23,847 MT of iron ore and 924 tonnes of furnace oil and 48 tonnes of diesel, had sunk about three nautical miles off the Paradip coast at around 6 pm on September 9.

A day after the directive of the Ministry of Shipping to the CBI for a thorough probe into the sinking of the Black Rose, PPT chairman Rinkesh Ray in a press briefing on July 3 had assured all cooperation to the central investigating agency in its probe.