Paradip/Bhubaneswar: A day after the directive of the Ministry of Shipping to the CBI for a thorough probe into the sinking of the Mongolian cargo ship Black Rose off the Paradip coast in Odisha’s Jagatsinghpur district on September 9, 2009, chairman of the Paradip Port Trust (PPT) on Tuesday assured all cooperation to the central investigating agency in its probe.
“Two trustees of the PPT had alleged that the cargo ship had anchored at the port through forged documents. The ship was carrying iron ore from Jharkhand for transportation. Several agencies and people are involved in the illegal transportation of iron ore. The Paradip Port administration is ready for any probe into the case and will assist the CBI in its probe,” PPT chairman Rinkesh Ray told mediapersons at his office in Paradip in the afternoon.
“One agency had uploaded the iron ore from Jharkhand on the ship. Another agency had brought the ship to the Port through forged documents. Besides, the ship owner was reportedly operating with forged certificates. Besides, the agencies involved in the illegal transportation have their office in Singapore and Kolkata. The CBI will probe into all these aspects,” Ray added.
While the BJP has alleged the involvement of a ruling party leader of Jajpur behind the racket, the Congress has said the BJD government had ordered a Crime Branch probe to give a breather to those involved in the incident.
Asked about the incident, senior BJD leader Damodar Rout asked how come the Crime Branch did not know the owner of the ship and where the iron ore was to be transported when detailed information about the ship had been obtained through the Right to Information (RTI) Act.
“I will furnish all the information and data to the CBI if it approaches me,” he said.
The ill-fated Mongolian cargo 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 about 6 pm on the ill-fated day. Oleksander Ilyushchenko, a Chief Engineer from Ukraine was killed while some crew members were injured.
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