Daijiworld Media Network - Udupi (MS)

Udupi, May 5: There is no clarity on the fact that INS Kochi indeed collide with the boat Suvarna Tribhuja that led the sinking of the boat and missing of the seven fishermen who were on board. The Indian Navy has not given any information on this matter. However, various political leaders as well as the eminent personalities of the Fishermen’s Associations have expressed their suspicion in similar lines.

Indian Navy, in its written answer that was sent to the SP office of the city had clarified the damage that occurred to INS Kochi. However, the letter stated that INS Kochi got damaged on its base. If it had indeed collided with Suvarna Tribhuja boat, then it should have received damage on one of the sides or the front part of the ship. This is one argument. There is also a speculation that some other ship might have collided with Suvarna Tribhuja and the wreck of the boat must have hit the bottom part of INS Kochi which sailed through the same spot in deep sea.

The fingers point more towards the possibility of INS Kochi colliding with the boat because there is similarities in the date and time of the fishermen on boat losing contact with other boats, the direction in which the Suvarna Tribhuja boat was fishing and the route of INS Kochi's sailing and the damage that has happened to the INS Kochi.

If there was a boat approaching from the front, INS Kochi, which has state of the art radar monitoring system, would have definitely got clear signals. But the questions are being asked to why it did not get signals? According to the leaders of the fishermen, this is the first time that such an incident of boat collision has occurred in the history of fishing of boats that went into deep sea from Malpe fishing port. Earlier also, the fishing boats have sailed in the same route and the
vessels of Indian Navy also used to cross them in deep sea. But incident of this kind and the mystery never occurred. If the Navy gives clear clarification on the incident, it is possible to get a picture of what has happened, say the leaders of the Fishermen’s Association.

The fishermen suspected INS Kochi from the time the information was available that the Indian Navy ship got damaged. This suspicion continues even now. SP Nisha James has informed that a letter is written to the naval base in Karwar to give information with regards to the statement given by MLA Raghupati Bhat as well as the information given by the Indian Navy in its Twitter account.

The Indian Navy had also reported that cargo ship Sea Harvest had also sailed on the same route on the day of the incident on which Suvarna Tribhuja boat lost its contact. If the investigation continues in the angle as to whether Sea Harvest vessel has got any damage, then a clearer picture may arise to the cause of the ill-fated sinking of the boat and the missing of fishermen on board.