Hong Kong-based firm says Sanjay Chaudhary died of cardiac arrest, but his wife claims there were ‘unusual marks’ on his body and key evidence destroyed.
New Delhi: On 16 April 2018, Sanjay Chaudhary, chief engineer at the Anglo-Eastern shipping company, spoke to his wife for the last time.
“Something horrible” was being conspired against him, he is said to have told her.
A day later, his wife was informed that Chaudhary, 45, died of cardiac arrest while he was on duty on the ship — a claim she refused to buy.
Now, in a complaint to the CBI chief, Chaudhary’s wife, a Ghaziabad-based government employee, has alleged foul play.
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“I seriously apprehend that in order to conceal their [the Hong Kong-based shipping company] act of killing my husband, his death has been portrayed as natural death and all the evidences available on paper and electronic form have been destroyed,” she has said in the complaint.
Anglo-Eastern, one of the top five ship management firms in the world, however, rejected this allegation, saying Chaudhary died of cardiac arrest and that it has the post-mortem report to prove this.
The wife has approached the CBI, the Directorate-General of Shipping and the Minority Commission, seeking a thorough investigation in the case.
According to documents pertaining to the case, minister of state for external affairs, Gen. V.K. Singh (retd), has written letters dated 24 August 2018 to CBI director Alok Kumar Verma and minister of shipping Nitin Gadkari seeking “needful redressal of her grievance on humanitarian grounds”.
A CBI spokesperson did not respond to queries from ThePrint on what the agency planned to do with the complaint.
In the detailed complaint, Chaudhary’s wife said that the company caused unnecessary delay of 15 days in bringing the mortal remains of her husband back to India, did not release his mobile phone, laptop, among others — which could contain relevant information — and that there were “unusual marks, cuts, lumps and swelling on his body”.
“These malicious acts of the company officials are further substantiated by several incidents reported in the media about the security lapses on the ships managed by this company,” the complaint says.
The company’s defence
Rajeev Kumar, general manager of the company, told ThePrint: “As a company, we can only go by what the post-mortem report says…And the report says cardiac arrest.”
Asked why Chaudhary’s belongings were not given to the family, Kumar said: “We lost them in transit…Luggage routinely goes missing from airports.”
“We have provided all the reports to DG Shipping and we are in constant touch with them,” he added.
Deputy director of Shipping Santosh Kumar said the government has got in touch with company officials. “We have asked the company for their comments, and the investigation is pending.”
Previous cases
This is, however, not the first time that the company is being accused of wrongdoing.
In the same month when Chaudhary’s death was reported, a 24-year old sailor reportedly went missing while on a ship managed by the same company. Suspecting foul play, the parents of Ashwin Kumar Hari, who had been at sea for only a few weeks, filed a complaint against Anglo-Eastern.
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“We are suspecting a foul play about the missing case of our son and the date and time mentioned in letter (sic),” Hari’s father reportedly said in a letter to external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj.
Earlier in 2009, another 23-year-old Kerala youth, working as a cadet on board a container ship owned by Anglo-Eastern, had gone missing. Within a day of informing the family, the company reportedly told the parents that the search and rescue operations had been halted.
In October 2013, the DG Shipping had suspended the licence granted to the company’s Singapore unit to manage ships registered in India, because of safety lapses on the part of the company.
But the suspension did not prohibit the firm from managing ships registered in other parts of the world.
So quick to rush to judgement. A post mortem is done for a reason and the wife should approach the authorities who have jurisdiction with her suspicions. On non-Indian flag ships has no power.
This Anglo-Eastern shipping company reminds me of East India company,before freedom they brutually killed our freedom fighters now they are killing us, we Indians means nothing to them but they are forgetting one thing We are much stronger now from that time ,and we will get justice by hook or by crook ….. जयहिन्द
Mr.Guptaji I am agree with your comment I know his wifr she is very kind and wisdom women she is also a brave women. she really need justice.
Thank You
Govt should initiate C B I inquiry on this episode
Shame to the company, shipping ministry and external affair ministry should intervene & take strict action against the shipping company immediately.