The Hindu : Kerala News : Bodies of four boat workers retrieved

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Sep 03, 2004

Kerala

Kerala

Bodies of four boat workers retrieved

By Our Staff Reporter

KOLLAM, SEP. 2. In yet another attempt made by a team of divers from the Indian Navy early this morning, bodies of four workers who got drowned were fished out from the boat that sunk in the sea off the Kollam coast last Saturday after colliding with a ship.

The divers will make another attempt tomorrow to retrieve the bodies of three more persons feared trapped inside the boat lying on the seabed at a depth of 50 metres.

The bodies retrieved today were those of Peter (35), Stalin (22), Esterlal (35) and Raj (48). The bodies have been kept at the District Hospital mortuary here. All the seven were close relatives and natives of Vaniyakudi in Kanyakumari district in Tamil Nadu.

Their family members, who have been here since Sunday, said they would take all the bodies together to Vaniyakudi. The divers, led by Commander Chandrashekar Verma, left for the accident site from the Shakthikulangara harbour early this morning.

They experienced difficulty in retrieving the bodies on Wednesday because of bad marine conditions. So they volunteered to stay back and make another attempt today.

Today's attempt

The Kollam SP, S. Sreejith, accompanied the diving team to the site of the accident this morning. On going down to the sea, the divers noticed a body lying entangled in the fishing net. It was Peter's body. On removing it from the net, the body floated on its own to the surface.

The body was immediately taken to the shore in a speedboat.

The divers then smashed open a portion of the cabin of the boat and found three more bodies inside. These were of Esterlal, Raj and Stalin.

A pillow found in the cabin suggests that they would have been asleep at the time of the accident.

Another bid

The divers would attempt to break open a portion of the deck tomorrow to gain entry into the store area below to see whether the remaining three bodies are trapped there.

Heartrending scenes were witnessed at the harbour when the bodies were brought ashore. Some of the relatives broke down.

Esterlal's father, Suzai, swooned on seeing the body of his son.

All the bodies were bloated but not badly decomposed. The relatives could easily identify the bodies.

The District Collector, B. Sreenivas, who supervised the operation on all the five days, said the Naval team had done a great job.

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