Port Blair, Jan 30: Body of the last missing tourist of Andaman’s tourist Boat Tragedy, has been found by the search party near Dugnabad Sea Shore of Port Blair city after 72 hours of continuous search, taking total toll to 22.
According to final reports there were 50 people onboard the tourist boat “Aqua Marine” out of which 21 bodies were recovered 26 January night while one body was found today.
Sources told ‘Andaman Sheekha’ that the body was in highly decomposed state and was identified with the help of ID card found in the pocket of the body.
M.V. Rifleman, a police interceptor boat along with divers was carrying out the search operation under the supervision of Shri. Mohd. Aslam, DySP (PMF). The deceased was identified thereafter the post-mortem examination was conducted and the body was handed over to the relatives.
The body was later sent to Chennai by today’s flight.
28 people, including 26 tourists have survived the tragedy.
According to police sources the accident took place at around 3.00 PM on 26 January, when tourist boat was going toward Chatham Jetty of Port Blair city from Ross Island, as a part of usual three island trip to Viper, Ross and North Bay.
Search teams of Coast Guard, Police and Shipping Services were searching for the body of Mr. Suresh, a tourist from Kanchipuram since last four days.
A team, consisting of 32 tourists, from Kanchipuram District of Tamil Nadu suffered maximum burnt of the accident as 16 members of the team lost their lives
According to report Out of 10 tourists from Mumbai three are dead. From Kolkata there were two (one died), Saharanpur, UP there were two (one died) and from New Delhi there were two and both of them survived.
Two crew members on the boat from Port Blair and all of them also survived the accident.
Meanwhile, the police custody remand of the three accused persons namely (1) T. Chandra Sekharan (2) A. Prabhu and (3) Narottam Gomasta has been extended by 4 days in the Court of Chief Judicial Magistrate.
The owner of the boat, Smti. T. Jaya has been remanded to judicial custody for 14 days. Detailed investigation of the case is in progress, a communication from the Superintendent of Police (CID) said.
