Kochi: The Fort Kochi Coastal Police have registered a case over the fire outbreak onboard the Singapore-flagged container ship MV Wan Hai 503 off the Kannur coast on June 9. The case has been registered against the shipping company's owner, the captain, and the vessel's crew members. An FIR was registered even as attempts to douse the massive fire had been on for the past nine days.

The case was registered on a complaint filed by Suneesh P V, a fisherman from Kozhikode. According to the FIR, the accused handled the container ship in a reckless manner likely to cause a threat to human life despite knowing that the containers onboard carried combustible materials, explosive substances and hazardous chemicals. It stated that the discharge of fuel and other oils, as well as hazardous gases and other chemicals to the sea, has adversely impacted the fisherfolk and the ecology. The accident also disrupted smooth traffic through the searoute, it stated.

According to the FIR, the case has been filed under Sections 282 (rash navigation of vessel), 285 (addresses danger or obstruction in public ways or lines of navigation), 286 (negligent conduct involving poisonous substances), 287 (negligent conduct with respect to fire or combustible matter), 288 (rash or negligent actions, endangers human life or causes harm by using explosive substances), and 3(5) (criminal act is done by several people in furtherance of a shared common intention) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).

Eighteen members of the crew of the container ship were shifted to Mangaluru after they were rescued by the Indian Navy. Four members of the crew have been missing since the accident.

The charges are the same ones slapped against the owner, captain and crew of MSC Elsa 3, the Liberian-flagged container vessel that sank around 14.6 nautical miles off the Alappuzha coast on the west of Thottappally on May 24 en route to Kochi from Vizhinjam.