PIL filed in Supreme Court seeking court-monitored probe in INS Sindhuratna fire tragedy case

A PIL was filed in the Supreme Court on Thursday, seeking a court-monitored probe into the fire tragedy in submarine INS Sindhuratna and compensation of Rs 1 crore each for relatives of the two Navy officers who died in the tragic incident.

The petition claimed that the officers died allegedly due to technical and maintenance failure of batteries in the submarine.

It sought the Court-monitored probe to ascertain whether there was a timely provision of batteries and other safety equipment.

The PIL, filed by advocates Subrata Das and N Rajaraman, also sought a direction for calling the communication between the Defence Ministry and the Navy Command relating to the maintenance of submarines, particularly Sindhuratna.

Seven sailors were also injured when fire erupted on board Sindhuratna around 40 nautical miles off Mumbai on February 26. Close on the heels of this incident, the Navy Chief Admiral DK Joshi resigned following the incident taking moral responsibility.

The Navy had said human miscalculation led to the fire that broke out on cables on INS Sindhuratna. The probe had mentioned a deviation from standard operating procedure.

The PIL sought for a direction from the Court to the Defence Ministry to also submit the status report on the action taken by it on the requisitions concerning repairs and replacement of safety equipment of the armed forces.