An FIR has been filed against the captain of barge P-305 and several other people after it sank in the Arabian Sea five days ago during cyclone Tauktae, killing at least 49 of its crew members, according to a police official.
The case was filed at the Yellow Gate police station under sections 304 (2) (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), 338 (causing grievous harm to any person through rash or negligent act), and 34 (common intention). The captain of the barge, Rakesh Ballav, and others have been named in the FIR, according to a Mumbai Police spokesperson.
According to him, the case was opened after the chief engineer of the barge, Rahman Hussain Shaikh, who was among the survivors of the incident, filed a complaint.
Officials said that 186 of the 261 people on board the barge that sank on Monday had been rescued as of Thursday. The bodies of 49 people have been recovered, and the Navy and the Coast Guard are searching for the 26 people who went missing from the barge and 11 people who went missing from the anchor boat Varaprada, according to the Navy and the Coast Guard.
