Sri Lankan police to record statements of MV X-Press Pearl crew including captain
May 31, 2021
Colombo [Sril Lanka], May 31 : A special police team on Monday will be deployed to record statements from the crew members including the captain of the container vessel MV X-Press Pearl.
Police will record the statements in connection with the complaint lodged by the Marine Environment Protection Authority (MEPA) over the environmental damage caused by the fire that erupted in the vessel, according to The Daily Mirror (Sri Lanka).
Police Spokesman DIG Ajith Rohana said that the MEPA had lodged a complaint with the Colombo harbour police on May 23 to take legal action against the Captain of the X-Press Pearl ship, which caught fire near the Colombo Harbor and its parent company.
Accordingly, the Harbour Police has initiated an investigation and the facts have been reported to the Colombo Magistrate's Court.
However, statements were not recorded from the crew because they were undergoing quarantine.
The spokesman said statements will be recorded tomorrow as the 25 crew members complete their quarantine period on Sunday, The Daily Mirror (Sri Lanka) reported.
The distressed vessel MV X-Press Pearl was carrying 1,486 containers with nitric acid and other hazardous IMDG code chemicals. The extreme fire, damage to containers and prevailing inclement weather has caused the vessel to tilt to starboard resulting in the falling of containers overboard.
Meanwhile, the Indian Defence Ministry On Sunday said that Indian and Sri Lankan authorities' joint efforts to extinguish the massive fire onboard a container vessel off Colombo have yielded positive results with increasing signs of fire being under control.
Smoke density has also reduced and the fire has been localised to a small area near the aft section of MV X-Press Pearl, the ministry said.
The challenging round-the-clock fire-fighting operation is underway since May 25, 2021, jointly with Sri Lankan authorities.
It has been named Operation Sagar Aaraksha 2 which symbolises growing maritime cooperation between India and Sri Lanka.
