Family of missing Merchant Navy cadet approaches Delhi HC seeking CBI probe

By Dhiraj Beniwal
New Delhi [India], February 16 : Family of a missing Merchant Navy cadet Dhananjay Arora has approached the Delhi High Court seeking an investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and monitoring of the same by the court.
A resident of Delhi, Dhananjay was on duty on a ship that was on the voyage from Angola to China and had gone missing on September 13, 2020.
Justice V Kameswar Rao on Tuesday issued notice to CBI, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), Directorate General of Shipping, and other respondents on the petition moved by the mother and Sister of Dhananjay.
Standing Counsel Vikram Jaitley accepted notice on behalf of MEA and Director General of Shipping.
The high court has listed the petition for the next hearing on April 22, 2022.
Advocate Mir Adnan Zahoor, the counsel for the petitioner, argued that the cadet Dhananjay went missing from a ship registered overseas with Hong Kong-based company Fleet Ship Management.
He was recruited to the overseas company through Elegant Marine Services Private Limited of Gurugram.
Other than investigation from CBI, the family of the victim has sought direction from the court to the companies concerned to provide investigation reports regarding the missing cadet.
The bench, therefore, also issued notices to both Fleet Ship Management Inc and Elegant Marine Services Private Limited.
The family of Dhananjay has filed the petition through Advocate Ashish Deep Verma.
The bench observed, "The issue raised by the counsel is with regard to the missing son and brother of petitioners who were employed on a ship as cadet which was being operated by Fleet Ship Management Inc. Hong Kong."
The Counsel submitted that Dhananjay went missing from the ship on September 13, 2020, and his whereabouts are not known till date. In this regard, an application seeking direction for registration was filed in the lower Court but that was dismissed.
The petition alleged that on September 13, 2020, Cadet Dhananjay went mysteriously missing around 11 PM from the ship namely New Horizon while on a voyage carrying crude oil from Angola to China.
The Deputy General Manager of Elegant Marine Services Private Limited gave the first information via call at midnight of September 13, 2020, about the disappearance of Dhananjay to his father Virender Arora.
Virender Arora wrote various emails to the company and its employees, but his effort proved futile.
The petition stated that Dhananjay was harassed by an officer of the ship. He had shared a few photographs of the Chief Officer of the ship 'New Horizon' on WhatsApp with his sister on the same day of his disappearance and asked her to keep the photographs for future reference.
The petition stated Virender Arora had approached various security agencies but was returned unattended. He filed a complaint at the Police Station in Vivek Vihar of Delhi on January 7, 2021, which was disposed of without any satisfactory investigation.