Sailors families seek action against court Registrar
Posted on: 28/Feb/2013 2:24:01 PM
The five family members of five sailors of Pratibha Cauvery submitted a memorandum to Acting Chief Justice R.K.Agrawal in the Madras High Court, seeking action against Registrar-General G.Chockalingam for non-compliance with the court`s order of payment of compensation to the victims` legar heirs.
In the evening, the court Registry gave away a cheque of Rs.5 lakhs each to the family members of Anand Mohan Das, Jomen Jospeh, Raj Kanitkar and Rushab Jada.
Six crew members of Pratibha Cauvery died after they jumped into the sea when their ship ran aground off the city coast on October 31 in the cyclone. The Madras High Court on December last directed the Shipping Company to depositRs.30 lakh to be disbursed to the legal heirs of the deceased. Though the company deposited the sum in the Court Registry, the family members did not receive the compensation.
Frustrated over for not getting the compensation for their son`s death, N.Kothandapani and his wife Bharathi parents of the deceased crew member K.Niranjan, committed suicide by hanging in their house near Arakonam.
Following their suicide, the relatives of Niranjan and family members of other five came to the court on Wednesday and submitted the memorandum in the Office of acting Chief Justice to take action against the Registrar-General. Their lawyers also approached the RG and requested him to disburse the amount. They alleged that Mr Chockalingam had willfully disobeyed the court order.
Niranjan`s aunt said, that they had lost the young and energetic family member in the mishap and all of them were in poor financial state. It was in this situation the parents of Niranjan committed suicide.
Meanwhile, T.P.Senthilkumar, advocate for family members of the deceased sailors, gave a representation to the Inspector, High Court Police Station, asking him to register a first information report ( FIR) against the RG for alleged abettment of suicide of the couple.
