The captain of a Korean cargo vessel MV OSM Arena, entangled in a web of cases and anchored off the city, informed the Madras High Court that he abandoned the ship today, fearing it might capsize anytime as water had entered the engine room.
Facing cases filed in the Madras and Calcutta high courts by different parties to recover their dues, the ship has been anchored off Chennai port since February 2010 and arrested in September last year.
When a matter relating to the sale of the ship came up before Justice R Sudhakar today, its Captain Yethi Ka in a representation before the judge said he abandoned the ship this morning since water had already reached the engine room. He reached the shores with the help of a fishing boat that came by that way.
The ship was no longer in a position to pump out the water entering the engine room, he said.
The vessel, abandoned by its owner a long time ago leaving the crew in lurch, had drifted during the December 2011 Thane cyclone and later retrieved by the Chennai Port Trust, which has recently put up the ship for auction to recover its dues on account of the salvage operations and berthing charges.
