A Mauritius court rejected an application for bail made by Sunil Kumar, the captain of the Japanese bulk carrier, MV Wakashio that sunk off the country’s southeastern coast in July.
The Japanese ship owned by Nagasaki Shipping Co. carrying nearly 4,000 tonnes of fuel ran aground off Mauritius in the Indian Ocean and spilled oil, causing the tourist-dependent Indian Ocean island nation’s biggest environmental disaster.
“Given that the applicant may be charged with a serious offense and if found guilty a severe penalty may be imposed on him by the trial court, I am of the view that the risk to interfere with witnesses and the risk of absconding are real and plausible,” Acting Senior District Magistrate Neeshal K. Jugnauth said in Port Louis, the capital, on Tuesday.
According to court documents, Nandeshwar is provisionally charged with “unlawful interference with the operation of a property of a ship likely to endanger its safe navigation.”
