Kolkata based Sea Trans Private Ltd the company which was exporting iron ore to China by Black Rose has filed a law suit against the owner and management company of the sunken vessel at the International Court of London seeking stern action against them for allegedly using forged documents and not taking steps to retrieve oil from vessel.
Sources said that Sea Trans Private Ltd took this decision after Paradip Port Trust authorities suggested for such step.
Interestingly, the PPT authorities, who had sought and were granted permission by the Union government to initiate legal action against the owner of the ship on September 26th themselves have not yet filed a case, some highly-placed sources confided adding the authorities are in consultation with legal experts in this regard.
Sea Trans Private Ltd officials alleged that the vessel had no valid documents. Even the insurance papers were fake, for which the Sea Trans Private Ltd now has to spend huge amounts on matters like tracing the dead body of the Ukrainian chief engineer, sending the body by air, food and lodging of the 26 rescued crew members.
Also as forged documents were used for ferrying the ship, the owner and management company have so far been elusive as the responsibility of retrieving oil from the sunken vessel falls on their shoulders.
While a Singaporean is the owner of Black Rose Maritime Limited a Singapore-based company PACMAR Shipping Ltd is the management company, sources said. The ship was registered in Ulan Bator and the Sea Trans Private Limited was the agency which was exporting iron ore to China using the ship.
Earlier, the manager of the company had requested PPT authorities to sell the sunken vessel to meet the expenditure to retrieve oil from Black Rose.
With the Union ministry of environment and forest getting tough over the immediate retrieval of oil from the sunken vessel, the PPT authorities are in a tight spot with the owner and management company officials are little likely to respond. The ministry had threatened legal action against the port authorities for violating the Wild Life Protection Act, Environment Act and Water Pollution Act in failing to retrieve the oil from sunken vessel even 30 days after the mishap.
