The mystery surrounding Black Rose, the Mongolian ship which sank near Paradip port a couple of months back, appear to be unfolding gradually with the officials of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) unearthing some vital facts in their probe.
The CID sleuths in their course of investigation have identified the owner of Black Rose, which sank in the Bay of Bengal, about five km off the Paradip coast on September 9, 2009.
Se Cook, the owner, had been running two ships in the name of Black Rose.
The CID officials led by Santosh Kumar Pattnaik, deputy superintendent of police (crime branch) have verified the documents and insurance papers of Black Rose at the Marine police station, Paradip.
The officials are stated to have got some vital clues on these papers. Besides, these officials interrogated Pravat Kumar Nanda, secretary and conservator Paradip Port Trust (PPT) on Thursday.
It may be recalled that Nanda had filed a case against the owner, management company and shipping agent of the sunken vessel at the Marine police station, Paradip on grounds of submission of forged documents.
Police sources said that a case has been registered for cheating and forgery against the Singapore-based Black Rose Maritime Ltd, the owner of Black Rose; Pacmar Shipping Private Ltd the vessel's management company, also based out of Singapore and Hong Kong-based charter company, Devi Trading Company Ltd.
The CID officials have also started investigation into the role of Kolkata-based Sea Trans Marine Limited, the shipping agency of Black Rose and some employees of PPT who allowed the 32-year old vessel with fabricated documents to anchor at the Paradip port.
Days after Black Rose capsized near the port, the vessel owner admitted to having submitted fake documents.
The vessel owned had doctored the documents of another vessel named Toros Pearl and submitted the same to the port authorities, police said.
Initially, the PPT authorities had lodged the Black Rose case at the Marine police station, Paradip.
Later, on December 17 last year, the case was handed over to the crime branch as per the directive of Director General of Police Manmohan Praharaj.
