Cargo Ship Essay

Cargo Ship Motor Vessel “Jan Seva” owned by the Shipping Corporation of India was chartered by a private company of South Africa on 6th November, 2014 for carrying Iron Alloy. The Chandra Sharma-appellant and the deceased- Gopal Narayan along with other were crew members on the said ship. When the ship was sailing from South Africa to Japan via Singapore, the auto pilot went out of order which could not be repaired for non-availability of technicians on board and thus requiring the crew on board to manually steer the ship. The Chandra Sharma and one M.Y. Narendra showed reluctance to steer the ship manually and insisted for repair of auto pilot and payment of their long overdue overtime. The ship was taken to Singapore to make the auto pilot

Kalyan Singh then intimated the Captain and other officers. The body of Gopal Narayan was found lying in Cabin No. 23 in such a way that half of it was inside the cabin and half of it outside. The officials of Shipping Corporation of India were informed. On incident being reported, pursuant to an instruction from concerned quarter, the ship was diverted to Hongkong. On being so directed by the Captain of the ship , Kalyan Singh got the body of the deceased cleaned up for being preserved in the fish room with the help of Ranjeet Singh and Chief Officer K. Shreedharan took photographs. The blood-stained knife was kept in the safe custody of . The Chandra Sharma was then apprehended, tied and disarmed before being shifted to the hospital on board. Since the ship was having Indian Flag, as per the International Treaty of which India was a signatory, the act of the Chandra Sharma was subject to Indian laws. Accordingly, a case bearing was registered by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) against the Chandra Sharma on 6th December, 2014. On reaching Hongkong, the body of deceased was handed over to Hongkong Police for post mortem examination. Two CBI officers reached Hongkong on 7th December, 2014. The investigation of the case was conducted by Sunil Kumar , Dy. Superintendent of Police, C.B.I. . The Investigation Officer

The Chandra Sharma was charged under Section 302 IPC. In support of its case, . The trial court vide judgment and order dated 9th August, 2015 held the appellant guilty of committing the murder of Gopal Narayan taking note of the incident of assault of 30th November, 2014 in which the appellant had sustained injuries at the hands of the deceased as motive on the part of the appellant for commission of crime, the extra- judicial confession made by him to Kalyan Singh and presence of his fingerprints on the knife that was allegedly used as the weapon of offence. Against this the accused filed an appeal in high