College, Agent put pressure on TN sailor's parents to drop plea for investigation into son's death

C Shivakumar

Chennai:

As soon as Indian High Commission ordered for an enquiry into the
mysterious death of 19-year-old Vignesh in a Malaysian ship following
a request by Commissioner of Rehabilitation (NRT) in Chennai to do so,
the agent in Malaysia said that he will arrange to have the body transported to his
native place in Madurai but on one condition that the parents should
not press for a police enquiry into the death of the trainee sailor
from Jams Marine College in Thoothkudi district.

Vignesh, a engine cadet in Jams Marine College in Thoothkudi district
was on on-job training along with his batchmate from Kochi in Kerala,
Nikhil Silvi for 12 months when both drowned on February 4, 2015,
while inhaling poisonous gas from the tank of a ship Cara USIA owned
by Nasinar SDN BHD.

Interestingly, after weeks, the college which washed off its hands on
the whole issue, woke up and hastily called the parents and also the
village president and threatened that the mortal remains of Vignesh
may further get delayed if the parents did not withdraw the plea for
an enquiry into Vignesh’s death.

Surprisingly, the college also told the parents that they won’t be
spending a penny in making arrangements to the send the body back.
When Express contacted the captain of the institution Terrence, he
again said that the college has no role in providing the on-job
training and it has got nothing to do with Vignesh. When queried on
why they called Vignesh parents, the captain said, “My conscience
pricked so I called the parents. We never put any pressure on them,”
he added.

Interestingly, when Ganapathy, a friend of Vignesh, who is helping the
parents in the whole issue, sought a death certificate, he got a call
from Mumbai based India Funeral Service, an organisation which helps
arrange funeral service in Mumbai, who said they will make
arrangements for it. And by evening, the death certificate was online.

Interestingly, the death certificate was made available when on the
same day Anuradha S, attache (Labour), High Commission of India, Kuala
Lumpur, Malaysia in a mail to The New Indian Express said that the
processing of death certificate takes around two weeks in case the
post-mortem is not done within seven days of death of the individual
and High commission is in touch with Malaysian authorities to waive
off requirements and issue death certificate.

“The issuance of death certificate has to be complete so that the
Mission can issue the No Objection Certificate to send the mortal
remains from Malaysia. Since it is a national holiday on account of
Chinese New Year, Malaysian offices are closed for two days from
tomorrow,” she said.

When Indian High Commission was informed of this development, Anuradha
in a mail said that, “The High Commission is fully aware of the facts
of the case and are in constant touch with the family of the deceased
on the status of this case.”

But why such a pressure tactic by the agent and the college to
withdraw the complaint. V Manoj Joy, Co-ordinator, Sailors Helpline
alleges that there is something fishy in the death of the two Indian
sailors. The urgency to import the human remains without a
non-objection certificate from Indian High Commission in Malaysia is
puzzling.